Ukrainian-trained, Turkish-sponsored Syrian rebels lead the attack on Aleppo

The offensive against Syria’s Aleppo regime, which began on November 27, is being carried out by a coalition of Islamist militant groups led by the Turkish-backed former Al Qaeda affiliated group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

According to reports on some Islamist social media sites, the rebel groups in the Idlib region – which reportedly include members of the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) – had received operational training from special forces of the Khimik group of Ukraine’s main intelligence agency. Directorate (HUR). The training team focused on tactics developed during the war in Ukraine, including the use of drones.

HUR’s Khimik group was blamed for the attack on a Russian military base on the southeastern outskirts of Aleppo.

September 15. It has been suggested that these Ukrainian special forces advisors are supporting the current opposition attacks, but there has been no independent verification of such involvement.

The suggestion of Ukrainian involvement could be seen as part of a broader trend of Kiev’s armed forces attacking Russian forces abroad, including alleged direct support for an attack by Islamist militias on Russian mercenaries and Wagner Group government forces on July 26 in Mali.

The head of HUR, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, said in an interview in May 2023 after reports that Ukrainian forces were operating against Russian contractors abroad: “We will continue to kill Russians everywhere and always until the complete victory of Ukraine.”

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Recent reports of large numbers of Russian forces in Syria to reinforce Moscow’s forces fighting in Ukraine appear to be encouraging the rebel offensive. This offensive is said to have captured more than twenty villages and other small settlements in the wider Aleppo region so far, with more images of captured Syrian and Russian military equipment posted.

Several regional sources reported on Wednesday that as the offensive began, a group of Russian special forces was ambushed and killed on the outskirts of Aleppo by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters. Although exact details of the incident were not provided, the claims were supported by images of a disabled Russian tactical vehicle, bodies in Russian uniforms and body armor, and the display of captured suppressed assault rifles of the kind popular with Moscow’s elite forces.

On Saturday evening, Western mainstream media reported that Syrian government forces were surprised by the speed of the rebel attack that had reached central Aleppo. It had met little resistance, as both Syrian and Russian forces had “made a tactical withdrawal in preparation for a counter-offensive.”

At the same time, it was reported that the Kurdish-led opposition group of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) attacked the city of Aleppo from the east and had taken control of the international airport as regime forces abandoned it.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported that at least 40 civilians in Aleppo were killed or injured when Russian aircraft carried out attacks on the city. This had little effect on the progress or morale of the rebels who had begun tearing down Syrian flags and posters supporting the Assad regime.

Reuters reported late Saturday that Russia was preparing to transfer additional military equipment, including Su-34 fighter jets, to Syria in the coming days, much of it from forces in western Russia supporting Vladimir Putin’s so-called special military operation in Ukraine.