Syrian insurgents breach Aleppo after detonating two car bombs, monitoring group and reports say

Rebels breached neighborhoods in Syria’s second-largest city of Aleppo and clashed with government military forces after detonating two car bombs Friday. The incident, reported by a leading war monitoring group and The Associated Press, has renewed international attention on a country engulfed in a simmering civil war for more than a decade.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, the monitoring organization, said fierce clashes were underway between the attacking insurgents and regime troops. The fighting is a significant escalation since rebels launched a surprise offensive Wednesday, seizing towns and villages as they advanced toward Aleppo.

The breach marked the first time opposition forces besieged the city since 2016, when they were driven out of Aleppo’s eastern neighborhoods during a military operation in which Syrian troops were supported by Russia and Iran. Four years ago, a ceasefire brought an end to the most intense violence, but the new push from rebels has upended a period of relative calm.

Witnesses who spoke to The Associated Press said Aleppo residents were fleeing from areas on the western edge amid missiles and exchanges of gunfire. The AP said an insurgent commander posted a recorded message on social media urging the city’s residents to cooperate with the rebels. The rebels are led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.

Syrian state media reports cited by the AP said insurgent-fired projectiles struck student accommodations at Aleppo’s university in the city center, killing four people, including two students. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of on-the-ground information sources, said at least 121 people have been killed since the start of HTS’ shock offensive.