BEIRUT: Syrian troops backed by Hezbollah and Iranian fighters launched an offensive south of Aleppo province on Friday, expanding the army’s counter-attack against rebels across western Syria with support from Russian air strikes.

The assault means the army is now pressing insurgents on several fronts near Syria’s main cities in the west, control of which would secure President Bashar al-Assad’s hold on power even if the east of the country is still held by the self-style Islamic State (IS).

Control of Aleppo city, still home to two million people, is divided between the government and rebels.

“This is the promised battle,” a senior military source in Syria said of the offensive backed by hundreds of Hezbollah and Iranian forces which he said had made some gains on the ground.

It was the first time Iranian fighters had taken part on such a scale in the Syrian conflict, he said, although their numbers were modest compared to the army force. “The main core is the Syrian army,” the source said.

The Syrian army said in a statement that its forces were engaged in battles in several areas in the country, including in Joubar and Harasta town near the capital Damascus, Homs and Aleppo provinces.

“Military operations against the terrorist groups continue along with intensive air strikes carried out by Syrian air force and benefiting from the results of Russian strikes.

“Our forces are (now) more determined to restore security and stability to our country,” the army said.

Hezbollah, which has supported Mr Assad in several battles during the civil war, said the army was carrying out a “broad military operation”, with support from Russian and Syrian jets, across a front at least 15km wide from the southwest to southeast of Aleppo.

It made no mention of Hezbollah fighters in its statement.

Two senior regional sources said this week that Iran sent thousands of troops to Syria to bolster an offensive already under way in Hama province and ahead of the Aleppo attack.

Iran says it has sent weapons and military advisers to support its ally, but has denied providing troops.

In the last week Iranian media have reported the deaths in Syria of three senior officers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. Hossein Hamedani, a corps deputy commander, was killed near Aleppo and two other officers have died fighting IS militants in Syria, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said.

Two senior Hezbollah officers have also been killed in Syria in the last week, a Lebanese security source said.

Villages retaken

Rami Abdulrahman, director of UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said there were heavy clashes near the Jebel Azzan region, about 12km south of Aleppo city.

The area that the army and Russian jets were targeting was close to a main road heading south towards the capital Damascus, Mr Abdulrahman said.

The army had recaptured the village of Abtin from rebel fighters, he said, as well as a tank battalion base close to Sabiqiya village. Both villages are close to Jebel Azzan. Rebels had hit one army tank with a US-made TOW anti-tank missile.

The military source said the rebel fighters were mainly from the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham and Al Qaeda’s Syrian wing, the Nusra Front, as well as the Suqour al-Sham and Failaq al-Sham insurgent groups.

The head of another rebel brigade Fursan al Haq, which is backed by Mr Assad’s foreign opponents and operates under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army, said his fighters had sent more TOW missiles to the Aleppo area to try to stem the attack.

“The battle is ongoing, and the resistance is stronger than the attack,” Fares al Bayoush, said.

Since Russia launched air strikes on Sept 30 in support of Mr Assad, the army has waged offensives against several insurgent-held regions in western Syria, starting with areas of Hama, Idlib and Latakia provinces taken by the rebels over the summer.

Moscow says its air campaign has targeted IS fighters in Syria, much like the US-led international coalition that has been separately striking the hard-line Islamist group in Syria and neighbouring Iraq for over a year.

But most of the Russian air strikes appear to have targeted rival, foreign-backed insurgents whose advances in recent months, helped by supplies of the US-made TOW missiles, had threatened Mr Assad’s grip on power.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2015

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