{"id":1505423,"date":"2024-12-01T21:55:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T02:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1505423"},"modified":"2024-12-01T21:55:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T02:55:00","slug":"death-toll-from-islamist-assault-on-aleppo-nears-500-as-iran-says-firmly-supports-assad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/death-toll-from-islamist-assault-on-aleppo-nears-500-as-iran-says-firmly-supports-assad\/1505423\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Toll From Islamist Assault On Aleppo Nears 500 As Iran Says ‘Firmly Supports’ Assad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Death Toll From Islamist Assault On Aleppo Nears 500 As Iran Says ‘Firmly Supports’ Assad<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

President Bashar al-Assad has reportedly sent large reinforcements to the southern Aleppo area after Al-Qaeda linked insurgents’ shock offensive which captured the city. Assad said he will defend Syria’s stability and territorial integrity.<\/p>\n

The London-based political opposition group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said<\/a> Sunday that the total death toll from the fighting is over 400 people on both sides<\/strong>. The tally includes the deaths of 214 members of\u00a0Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied factions which launched the assault.<\/p>\n

Associated Press: Islamist insurgents captured a Syrian army tank in the town of Maarat al-Numan, southwest from Aleppo, Syria, Saturday.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

And at least 137 pro-government forces and 61 civilians have been killed. The AFP has described that the military campaign launched out of Idlib is being coordinated from an operations room in Turkey.<\/p>\n

AFP\u00a0wrote on Friday that<\/a>\u00a0“Opposition sources in touch with Turkish intelligence said Turkey had given a green light to the offensive.”\u00a0AFPs correspondent in HTS\/AQ-held Idlib additionally reported that\u00a0“The jihadists and their Turkey-backed allies took orders from a joint operations command.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

A fresh report in Israeli media has acknowledged that this is all about weakening the ‘Iran axis’<\/a>:<\/p>\n

But the primary reason for the success of the rebel offensive and the collapse of the regime forces is the effectiveness of Israel\u2019s military operations against Hezbollah and Iran<\/strong> since October 8, 2023.<\/em><\/p>\n

HTS had been building up its military capabilities for years <\/strong>in preparation for such an offensive.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe group operates a professionally staffed military academy run by defectors from the Syrian military, and it has restructured its armed wing into a conventional armed force structure,\u201d\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0Charles Lister, Syria expert at the Middle East Institute. \u201cIn recent years, it has also developed \u2018special forces\u2019 units dedicated to covert operations, lightning raids behind enemy lines, and nighttime operations.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In prior years, any time an air and artillery campaign against Al-Qaeda held Idlib would ramp up, there would be an outcry from the West, and more condemnation of Damascus and Moscow, urging their militaries to halt efforts to take back Idlib.<\/p>\n

Central Damascus. No “coup”. Calm and peaceful.#Syria<\/a> will never fall pic.twitter.com\/takewXzlG3<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Vanessa Beeley (@VanessaBeeley) December 1, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

According to more on the Israeli and Sunni Islamists’ efforts to roll back the pro-Tehran axis<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“The timing is not coincidental,” Carmit Valensi, head of the Northern Arena Program at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told The Times of Israel.<\/em><\/p>\n

“They identify well the critical, even historical, weakness that the \u2018Resistance Axis,\u2019 primarily Hezbollah and Iran, find themselves in,”<\/strong> she continued.<\/em><\/p>\n

As for Iran, it says that it firmly supports Assad<\/strong> in a new statement. Iran\u2019s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said Sunday he will soon arrive in Damascus to deliver a strong message of support for Syria\u2019s government and military, Iranian state media has said.<\/p>\n

“I am going to Damascus to convey the message of the Islamic Republic to the Syrian government,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi\u00a0said. He pledged that Iran will “firmly support the Syrian government and army,” IRNA news agency said.<\/p>\n

Iran is pointing the finger at Washington and Tel Aviv for this new jihadist offensive<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Araghchi again called the surprise rebel offensive a plot by the United States and Israel<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

“The Syrian army will once again beat these terrorist groups as in the past,” the foreign minister added.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the past couple days of Aleppo fighting, not only has the Islamic Republic’s consulate in the major northern city come under attack, but there have been reports that an Iranian general may have been killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cB-but we\u2019re not ISIS or Al Nusra\u201d\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/TWdkYVjovN<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 War Monitor (@WarMonitors) December 1, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

The HTS-led coalition is attacking Kurdish groups in the environs of northern Aleppo as well. Currently there are reports the militants are\u00a0reinforcing their positions near Hama<\/strong>, possibly poised to attack the central city next.<\/p>\n

After years and years of crippling sanctions, the Syrian Army remains in a precarious position in terms of resources and logistics. “Outside the city of Hama, Syrian government military vehicles could be seen all over the roads, apparently abandoned by fleeing government troops after they ran out of fuel<\/strong>,” The New York Times<\/em><\/a> writes Sunday.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

As a reminder, amid this renewed conflict the United States still occupied large portions of Syria, and curiously the HTS\/AQ militant groups are not attacking these US-occupied areas…<\/p>\n

Why does the Western mainstream media never mention the American-occupied territories in Syria? pic.twitter.com\/4o6EZLiu55<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Richard (@ricwe123) October 5, 2024<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSun, 12\/01\/2024 – 16:55<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/death-toll-islamist-assault-aleppo-nears-500-iran-says-firmly-supports-assad<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Death Toll From Islamist Assault On Aleppo Nears 500 As Iran Says ‘Firmly Supports’ Assad President Bashar al-Assad has reportedly sent large reinforcements to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1505424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1505423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1505423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1505424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1505423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1505423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1505423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}