AFP, Sputnik, Dpa, Europa Press and Prensa Latina
La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, December 4, 2024, p. 22
Beirut. The jihadist militiamen led by the pro-Turkish Hayat Tahrir Sham (HTS) yesterday took control of the Syrian cities of Halfaya, Taybat Imam, Maardis, Soran and are advancing towards the central city of Hama, where government forces are trying to block their way with support. of Russian aviation; Meanwhile, the army recovered the town of Khanaser, near Aleppo, which remains captured.
The large-scale offensive launched on November 27 has so far left more than 602 dead, including 104 civilians.
Heavy fighting takes place in the north of Hama provincea strategic city on the route that connects Aleppo with Damascus, indicated the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in London.
A photographer from the AFP news agency saw yesterday, on the road leading to Hama, dozens of tanks and abandoned military vehicles of the Syrian army, which announced the sending of reinforcements to stop the advance of the opposition.
In Idlib, where Syrian and Russian planes have responded to the offensive with bombing, rescuers worked among the rubble of buildings devastated by the attacks, which also targeted the Haranabuch displaced persons camp.
HTS controls the northeastern region of Idlib, the country’s last opposition stronghold, which is home to 4 million displaced Syrians, according to the United Nations (UN).
I can’t describe the terror we sufferedsaid Hussein Ahmar Khader, a resident of the area.
Some 48,500 people, more than half of them children, have fled Idlib and northern Aleppo since the resumption of hostilities, the UN said.
On the Aleppo-Raqqa highway, AFP recorded long lines of cars, vans and even motorcycles overloaded with mattresses and blankets, with families trying to escape to areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), dominated by the Kurds and labeled as terrorists by Türkiye, which remains largely in opposition to the Syrian government.
On the other hand, the opposition Syrian National Army (SNA), also backed by Türkiye, launched an operation parallel to that of HTS called Dawn of freedomdirected against the Kurdish majority in the northeast of the country, reported the German network Deutsche Welle.
In Aleppo, armed militiamen patrolled the city, while residents lined up to receive some food distributed by an NGO.
For the first time since the start of the civil war in 2011, Bashar al Assad’s government lost control of Aleppo, the country’s second most important city.
Likewise, Israel reported that yesterday it launched an air attack on Damascus in which, it claimed, Salman Nimr Jamaa, an important member of Hezbollah, was killed. served as liaison with the Syrian armyTel Aviv highlighted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed the need to end quickly to the offensive launched in Syria by armed opposition groups.
The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, declared alarmed by recent escalation of violence and urged immediate cessation of hostilitiesmentioned his spokesperson.
The United States, which leads an international anti-jihadist coalition in Syria, called for all countries to work for a de-escalationand the European Union condemned Russian attacks in densely populated areas.
