JERUSALEM – A hardline Islamist group conducted its greatest military advance against Syrian regime soldiers since 2020 in the northwest of the war-ravaged Syrian Arab Republic, prompting Russian and Syrian airplanes to bomb the insurgency.

Rebels led by the US-designated Islamist terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have assaulted a dozen towns and villages in northwest Aleppo province, which is controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army. Syrian Islamist offensive

Rebels led by the U.S-designated Islamist terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stormed a dozen towns and villages in northwest Aleppo province, which is controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. The Syrian Islamist offensive started on the same day that Assad’s ally, the Lebanese-based terrorist organization, Hezbollah, reached a ceasefire agreement with Israel to end over 14 months of warfare.

The battle unfolding in Syria involves a motley crew of U.S.-classified state-sponsors of terrorism — Assad’s regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran — against a Turkey-backed Islamist terrorist movement. Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime has faced accusations of war crimes during its invasion of Ukraine. 

Former U.S. defense intel officer Rebekah Koffler, who is an expert on Putin, told Fox News Digital, “This is classic Putin’s Playbook, what’s going on in Syria, on Thanksgiving Day. He is doing what’s called lateral escalation in Syria, in response to Biden’s giving authorization to [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky to use U.S. ATACMs to strike deep into Russia, and Zelensky taking Biden up on his offer. Russia and the United States are on the opposite sides of the war in Syria. So Putin is ratcheting up support of Assad, which is counter to U.S. policy, signaling to Biden that he will be countering U.S. interests across multiple geographic areas.”Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham

Koffler stated, “Putin is putting pressure on Biden to rescind Zelensky’s authority to use ATACMs against Russia. The doctrine is ‘escalate to de-escalate.’ With the latest launch of the hypersonic missile Oreshnik on Ukraine, Putin moved many rungs up the escalation ladder. With Russian air forces joining Syrian planes bombing rebel-held northwestern Syria, he is also moving laterally on the escalation ladder in order to out-escalate the US, unbalance Biden, and gain as much negotiating leverage over Ukraine as possible before President Trump begins his second term. I wouldn’t be surprised if Assad attacks rebel-held territory with chemical weapons again.”

According to Alex Grinberg, an Israeli expert on Russia, the rest of Assad’s army cannot combat Hayat Tahrir al-Sham without the use of Russian air force. He stated that this is “usually what the Russians do” in Syria.

Iranian regime-controlled state media said that Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Kioumars Pourhashemi was killed in Aleppo during the operation. Pourhashemi was a top IRGC military advisor in Syria.

Islamist rebels claim the campaign was launched in response to increased bombings on civilians by Russian and Syrian air forces in southern Idlib in recent weeks, as well as to prevent any attacks by the Syrian army, which they claim is assembling troops near the rebel front lines. Assad’s war on his people, which began with Syrians demanding democracy in 2011, has led in the deaths of almost 500,000 people.

Throughout the Syrian conflict, Iran has sent hundreds of fighters to the country. While some Guardsmen have served as advisers, the most majority have been Shi’ite militiamen from around the region. According to Turkish security officials, the rebels initiated a modest offensive in response to Syrian government attacks and expanded it after the government soldiers abandoned their positions.