Syrian jets, joined by Russian warplanes, have intensified air attacks on Idlib and Aleppo to repel opposition fighters in the northwest of the country.

On November 27, groups opposing the government of President Bashar al-Assad, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, launched a surprise offensive that captured large parts of Aleppo, the country’s second largest city.

The opposition forces’ rapid gains are the most significant since 2016 and have thrust Syria’s various factions back into the spotlight.

How many civilians have been killed?

According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), an independent organisation that has documented human rights violations in Syria since 2011, at least 104 civilians, including at least 27 children and nine women, were killed in Syria between November 27 and December 1.

The latest violence marked the first major attack against al-Assad’s forces in the region since the March 2020 Idlib ceasefire, brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Over the past four years, Syrian government forces and Russians have repeatedly bombed northwest regime-held areas, killing hundreds.

Who controls what on the ground?

The map below shows the territorial control of various groups as of December 3.

Four main groups are competing for control on the ground in Syria. They are:

• Syrian government forces: The army, the government’s main military force, fights alongside the National Defence Forces, a pro-government paramilitary group.
• Syrian Democratic Forces: This Kurdish-dominated, United States-backed group controls parts of eastern Syria.
• HTS and other allied opposition groups: The HTS is the largest fighting force and the strongest presence in opposition-held Idlib.
• Turkish and Turkish-aligned Syrian rebel forces: The Syrian National Army is a Turkish-backed rebel force in northern Syria.

Who are Syria’s opposition fighters?

As the struggle against al-Assad’s government ground on in Syria, fighters formed and re-formed alliances according to the realities on the ground.

In this latest operation, many fighting groups are represented, clustered into alliances of varying sizes.

The two largest groupings are Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the National Front for Liberation, each of which comprises a number of smaller groups.

All of the groups have agreed to fight under the Military Operations Command, which is the newest iteration of the Fateh al-Mubin operations command centre that has been operating in the area for the past years.