Syrian rebel forces say they have entered Syria's second-largest city, Aleppo, in the biggest attack on the government in years.
A video posted by a channel affiliated with the rebels appears to show their fighters in vehicles inside the city. The video was posted by the BBC in a suburb of Western Aleppo.
The UK-based group says fighters detonated two car bombs before moving on to the neighborhood on Friday.
Meanwhile, government forces said they have regained positions in several towns in Aleppo and Idlib provinces, following attacks launched by the Islamic terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its affiliates on Wednesday.
A statement posted on a rebel-held channel on Friday said: “Our forces have begun to enter the city of Aleppo”.
Earlier, the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which uses a network of sources on the ground in Syria, reported that Syrian and Russian aircraft carried out 23 strikes in the Aleppo region on Friday.
SOHR said 255 people, most of them soldiers, have been killed in the fighting, the deadliest between rebels and pro-government forces in Syria.
It says opposition forces have taken control of more than 50 towns and villages since Wednesday.
The war that has raged since Syria's civil war began in 2011 ended in 2020, when Turkey and Russia – a key Syrian ally – cut a deal to halt the government's push to retake Idlib.
That led to a lull in violence, but sporadic clashes, airstrikes and bombings continued.
Idlib is the last remaining stronghold of the opposition and is home to more than four million people, most of whom were displaced during the conflict and live in dire conditions.
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