Syrian rebel groups have launched “a limited offensive” toward Aleppo to stop Syrian government attacks targeting the civilian population in Idlib, Turkish security sources told the Middle East Eye (MEE) on Thursday.

Since Wednesday, footage circulating on social media has shown militants of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and aligned forces making significant advances, capturing swaths of territory and progressing rapidly toward the outskirts of Aleppo city.

#Syria
📹 Nour Al-Din Al-Zenki Movement released footage of its fighters taking part in #HTS assault on #Aleppo city. According to reports, Tahrir al-Sham & allied factions took positions in about 8 km from the city.#سوريا #حلب #حركة_نور_الدين_الزنكي
#ردع_العدوان#تحرير_الشام pic.twitter.com/SfmrUeOEr9

— Idlib Calling (@IdlibCallingSy) November 27, 2024

Some rebel groups linked to the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army have reportedly joined the operation, although the majority of these forces have not yet participated.

A senior Turkish security source told MEE that Turkey has been trying to prevent the offensive in order to avoid further escalation of tensions in the region, especially in light of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

However, efforts to use the channels created by a 2019 de-escalation agreement to halt Russian and Syrian government airstrikes on residential areas in the rebel-held province of Idlib have not yielded results.

“In response to these attacks, Syrian opposition groups launched a limited operation toward Aleppo, targeting the areas from which the attacks originated,” the source was quoted by MEE as saying.

“What was initially planned as a limited operation expanded as regime forces began fleeing their positions,” a Turkish security source was quoted by MEE.

Battle for eastern Idlib

The source told MEE that the operation aims to restore the boundaries of the de-escalation zone in Idlib, which was initially agreed by Russia, Turkey and Iran in 2019.

The source added that Russian and Syrian government attacks shrank the de-escalation zone after forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including Hezbollah and Iran-backed militias, seized more areas near Aleppo in 2020 in violation of the agreement.

The new operation, the source said, aims to restore rebel control over the eastern part of Idlib up to the borders originally agreed upon by Turkey, Russia and Iran.

During the Syrian government’s Russian-backed 2020 Idlib offensive, its forces killed 36 Turkish soldiers deployed in northern Syria.

This incident triggered a Turkish military intervention to stop the attack. Ankara bombed Assad’s forces using drones and destroyed hundreds of pieces of military equipment, including armored vehicles and tanks as well as some fortified positions.

Earlier this year, Turkey attempted to hold normalization talks with the Assad government, but its efforts were unsuccessful as Damascus demanded the complete withdrawal of Turkish forces from northern Syria as a precondition.

While Turkey does not exercise direct control in Idlib, where HTS, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, governs the area with its own civilian administration, it maintains several observation posts in the region.

Turkish sources also reported that more than 30 civilians were killed and over 100 others wounded in recent attacks by Syrian government forces and allied militias in Idlib.

Three children were killed and dozens more injured, some seriously, in an attack on a Quranic school.

The loss of Aleppo by the opposition to the Syrian regime in December 2016 marked a turning point in the Syrian civil war and a major defeat for the rebel forces.

After years of intense fighting, the city, which was once Syria’s largest city and an economic hub, became a flashpoint in the conflict, with East Aleppo controlled by opposition groups and West Aleppo by government forces.

The Syrian regime, backed by the Russian air force and Iranian-backed militias, launched a sustained offensive in mid-2016, attacking rebel-held areas with heavy bombardments and ground assaults.

A brutal siege cut off supplies to eastern Aleppo, leading to severe shortages of food, medicine and other essentials for the civilian population.

International attempts to broker a ceasefire failed repeatedly.

In December 2016, the rebels agreed to evacuate under an agreement brokered by Turkey and Russia and handed control of the city to President Assad’s forces.

The fall of Aleppo has not only strengthened Assad’s grip on key urban centers, but has also dealt a serious blow to the fragmented opposition.

Turkey originally aimed to topple Assad’s regime when the Syrian civil war erupted with the violent suppression of peaceful protesters in 2011, backing rebels calling for his ouster. More recently, Ankara has shifted focus to preventing what Erdoğan in 2019 called a “terror corridor” from opening up in northern Syria.

Turkish forces and Turkey-backed rebel factions control swaths of northern Syria and Turkey has taken in 3.2 million refugees from the war-torn country, according to UN data.

Assad has approached Erdoğan’s efforts at normalization cautiously. In a July interview, he said he was open to meeting with Erdoğan but that it depended on the “content” of the encounter, noting that Turkey’s presence in Syria is a key sticking point.

Assad hinted that a halt of Turkey’s “support” for terrorism in Syria and its withdrawal from Syrian territory would be “reference points” for a meeting with Erdoğan.

Syria accuses Turkey of supporting “terrorism” due to its backing of opposition groups in the country.