Aleppo videos show Syrian celebrations as Assad's forces seem to retreat

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad faces the biggest challenge to his authority in years after rebels entered Aleppo, with video shared on social media showing celebrations at their actions in the country's second city.

The British-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said that more than 300 people had been killed since the start of the offensive launched by militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions on Wednesday in which dozens of villages have been seized.

The SOHR, which Newsweek has contacted for comment, said Saturday that the groups challenging Assad's government controlled the "majority" of Aleppo, the first time rebels had reached the city since being forced out by Syria's army, backed by Russia and Iran, after a brutal siege in 2016.

Syria's military confirmed that rebels had entered "large parts" of the city and dozens of soldiers had been killed or injured in the fighting, Reuters reported.

Video posted on a channel affiliated with HTS appears to show rebel fighters in vehicles inside the city. One clip purported to show HTS troops waving the flag of the Free Syrian Army above the citadel of Aleppo, proclaiming victory.

Clement Molin, who posts on X about conflicts, shared a clip in which he said that the mostly Kurdish YPG-SDF rebels had reached the Aleppo airport, the Kurdish quarter and were pushing further north. Aleppo's airport and all roads leading into the city have been closed.

Next to a video, the journalist Thomas van Linge posted on X how "regime flags are being removed in the town of Inkhil as people are rallying against Assad. There are some expecting events in Aleppo to spark a new revolt in Daraa, down in the south." Another video showed a police headquarters captured by the rebels.

Dareen Khalifa, a researcher at the International Crisis Group think tank, told Agence France-Presse the rebels' offensive had been months in the planning and had been presented as "a defensive move against regime escalation," following Syrian government and Russian strikes on the area leading up to the attack.

Syria's military said its troops had been withdrawn from Aleppo temporarily "to prepare a counteroffensive." Russia's military, on which Assad has relied to stay in power, launched air strikes in parts of Aleppo overnight into Saturday for the first time since 2016, the BBC reported.

Syrian and Russian planes carried out 23 air strikes near Idlib on Friday, which killed four civilians and injured 19 others, according to the SOHR.

Russia's military said it had bombed "extremist forces," according to Russian state media, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressing Moscow's support "to quickly restore order" to its ally.

A prominent pro-Russian military blogger, Osetin, expressed concern at the events in Aleppo given how much Moscow had helped Assad eight years ago.

"How many of our guys died in Syria for liberation from terrorists, so that now they can so freely surrender Aleppo?" the blogger said on Telegram in a post shared by X account War Translated.