More than 240 people, mostly fighters, have been killed in intense fighting near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo after the jihadists launched a major offensive on government-held areas this week, a monitor said on Friday.
On Wednesday, the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied Turkish-backed factions launched an assault on government-held areas in the northwest, sparking the heaviest fighting since 2020, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said the fighting had reached within two kilometers of the northern city of Aleppo, where jihadist artillery shelling of student dormitories killed four civilians, state media reported.
“The number of fighters killed in the ongoing… operation in the villages of Idlib and Aleppo has risen to 218 since Wednesday,” the monitor said.
In addition to the fighters, 24 civilians were reported killed.
Syria’s ally Russia launched airstrikes that killed 19 civilians on Thursday, while another civilian was killed in Syrian army shelling the day before, the Observatory said, which on Thursday put the total death toll at around 200, including civilians.
