This is the dramatic moment Islamist insurgents in Syria toppled a statue of President Bashar Al Assad’s brother as they stormed Aleppo in what is a major setback for the government.
Thousands of Syrian insurgents fanned out inside Aleppo in vehicles with improvised armor and pickups, deploying to landmarks such as the old citadel on Saturday, a day after they entered Syria’s largest city facing little resistance from government troops, according to residents and fighters.
Syria’s armed forces said in a statement Saturday that to absorb the large attack on Aleppo and save lives, it has redeployed and is preparing for a counterattack.
The statement acknowledged that insurgents entered large parts of the city but said they have not established bases or checkpoints.
Insurgents were filmed outside police headquarters, in the city center, and outside the Aleppo Citadel.
They tore down posters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, stepping on some and burning others.
In footage posted to X, rebels can be seen tearing down the statue of the president’s brother Bassel Al Assad, who died in a car crash in 1994.
The video shows how insurgents manage to yank at the statue by tying it to rope that is attached to a moving truck.
Footage captured the dramatic moment Islamist rebels in Syria toppled a statue of President Bashar Al Assad’s brother as they stormed Aleppo
The video shows how insurgents manage to yank at the statue by tying it to rope that is attached to a moving truck
As the figure topples over and smashes onto the hard floor, rebels can be heard cheering and chanting as they fire gunshots into the air
As the figure topples over and smashes onto the hard floor, rebels can be heard cheering and chanting as they fire gunshots into the air.
Cars driving by join in on the celebration as they honk their horns.
Other videos documenting the insurgence have been shared online too.
One clip shows how men dressed in camouflage holding weapons pull down the Syrian flag from a monument in Aleppo.
The surprise takeover is a huge embarrassment for Assad, who managed to regain total control of the city in 2016, after expelling insurgents and thousands of civilians from its eastern neighborhoods following a grueling military campaign in which his forces were backed by Russia, Iran and its allied groups.
Aleppo has not been attacked by opposition forces since then.
The 2016 battle for Aleppo was a turning point in the war between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters after 2011 protests against Assad’s rule turned into an all-out war.
The push into Aleppo followed weeks of simmering low-level violence, including government attacks on opposition-held areas.
nti-government fighters prepare to topple the equestrian statue of Bassel-al-Assad, the eldest son of late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, who was killed in a car crash in 1994, in central Aleppo on November 30, 2024
Anti-government fighters celebrate in a street in Maaret al-Numan in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province on November 30
Anti-government fighters celebrate in Aleppo, after jihadists and their allies entered the northern Syrian city
An anti-government fighter tears down a portrait of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo
An anti-government fighter raises an opposition flag in front of the landmark citadel of Aleppo
Turkey, which has backed Syrian opposition groups, failed in its diplomatic efforts to prevent the Syrian government attacks, which were seen as a violation of a 2019 agreement sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran to freeze the line of the conflict.
The offensive came as Iran-linked groups, primarily Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has backed Syrian government forces since 2015, have been preoccupied with their own battles at home.
A ceasefire in Hezbollah’s two-month war with Israel took effect Wednesday, the day the Syrian opposition factions announced their offensive.
Israel has also escalated its attacks against Hezbollah and Iran-linked targets in Syria during the last 70 days.
Witnesses said two airstrikes on the city’s edge late Friday targeted insurgent reinforcements and hit near residential areas. A war monitor said 20 fighters were killed.
At least 277 people have been killed, including 28 civilians, in the fighting since the offensive started on Wednesday.
It comes as the Syrian army said today that dozens of its soldiers had been killed.