Rebel groups attack Kurdish-held areas in north-western Syria

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Syrian rebels are attacking Kurdish-held areas in the country’s north-west as the Islamists’ shock offensive against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime threatens to draw in other forces in the deeply fractured nation.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said its fighters were facing intense attacks on multiple fronts near the strategically important town of Tel Rifaat, north-west of Aleppo — Syria’s second-largest city that was captured by rebels in a lightning offensive last week.

The clashes between Turkish-backed rebels and the Kurdish-led SDF have underlined the risk of the conflict spreading to other parts of Syria, home to myriad factions supported by foreign powers.

Turkey has for years deployed troops in northern Syria to support rebel groups as part of Ankara’s attempts to push back Kurdish militants it considers an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK). The PKK is a separatist group that has been fighting the Turkish state for decades.

Turkey’s campaign against the SDF has been a point of friction with the US, which has supported the Kurdish-led forces in the fight against Isis and has about 900 troops deployed in Syria.

Rebels appeared to take control of Tel Rifaat, according to local journalists on Monday and the pro-regime Al Mayadeen TV. Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham on Sunday called on SDF forces to leave the area, adding that it would offer safe passage for Aleppo’s Kurds to head to the Kurdish-controlled north-east.

Thousands of rebels led by HTS entered Aleppo, which has a population of 2mn, on Friday. They raised their flag over the city’s citadel, posed for photographs at its airport and patrolled the streets of a city gripped by fear that it could descend into the chaos of civil war once again.

The rebels, who launched their assault on Wednesday, have advanced in multiple directions from their stronghold in Idlib province in north-western Syria, although their progress seemed to have slowed by Sunday.

Despite being at odds politically with the Assad regime, the Kurdish-led breakaway government that controls Syria’s north-east has publicly opposed the insurgency, accusing Turkey of taking advantage of the offensive to try and displace the Kurds through the rebel groups’ offensive.

Analysts say HTS is co-ordinating with Turkish-backed factions known as the Syrian National Army, but the latter forces have not yet fully deployed on the offensive.

On Sunday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that while there were concerns about HTS’s “designs and objectives”, Washington would not “cry over the fact that the Assad government, backed by Russia, Iran and Hizbollah, are facing certain kinds of pressure”.

Iran pledged “all-out support” to Assad during a visit to Damascus by the country’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday.

He reaffirmed Tehran’s stance that the attack on Aleppo was part of an American-Israeli scheme, following what Iran perceives as Israel’s failure to destroy Hamas and Hizbollah. “Just as Syria overcame terrorism in the past, it will prevail once again,” he said.

The battering Iran-backed groups, including Hizbollah, have taken over the past year by the Israeli military in Syria and Lebanon may have created the opportunity for the rebel offensive.

Iran has been one of Assad’s key backers, helping him retain his hold on power since the civil war erupted in 2011. But it was unclear how Tehran would support Damascus in the latest flare-up of a conflict that had been frozen for years.

HTS’s ability to move beyond Idlib is a major embarrassment for Assad, underscoring the regime’s weakness. The offensive comes at a time when the Syrian president’s allies are preoccupied with their own conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Meanwhile, at least 25 people have been killed in opposition-held Idlib province and newly captured Aleppo, as Russian and Syrian warplanes intensified air raids in a bid to stem the rebels’ advance, war monitors and emergency responders who operate in opposition-held areas said on Sunday. Assad’s forces continued to strike rebel-held positions in Aleppo’s countryside, the government said on Monday.

Syria’s army claimed to have recaptured several towns the rebels had overrun in recent days, fortifying their defensive lines in northern Hama province, which borders Aleppo.

HTS-linked media published interviews with Christian residents of Aleppo out Christmas shopping on Sunday, reflecting its attempts in recent years to portray itself as less radical and not threatening to Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities.

Additional reporting by Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran