By Saturday, they had taken control of "large parts" of the country's second-biggest city, Aleppo. The surprise offensive prompted the first Russian strikes on Aleppo since 2016, and saw Syria's military withdraw its troops from the city.

The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group in Syria has taken control of much of Aleppo city after local forces withdrew to organize a counteroffensive to retake Aleppo.

A monitor of Syria's war said on Saturday that jihadist rebels now control a majority of Aleppo city, reporting Russian air strikes on parts of Syria's second city for the first time since 2016.The rebels have pressed a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed Syrian government since Wednesday,

Scores of people were killed after forces opposed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad overtook a Syrian military base, a monitoring group reported.

Thousands of Syrian insurgents have pushed on with their advances on government-held areas in the country’s northwest

Syrian opposition forces claim to have entered Aleppo city from the western side, according to a statement released on Friday by the newly formed rebel coalition, the Military Operations Command.

Last month, the UN special envoy for Syria warned that the wars in Gaza and Lebanon appeared to be “catalysing conflict in north-west Syria in a dangerous manner”. Geir Pedersen said HTS had carried out a significant raid into government-held areas,

Jihadists and their Turkish-backed allies shelled Syria's second city Aleppo on Friday, in a major offensive against government troops that has sparked some of the deadliest fighting the country has