Syrian rebels score huge win: Russia's military grip shaken in unexpected ways
Syrian opposition groups took control of key areas near Aleppo marking the biggest territorial change in years. Russian forces face new problems while trying to keep their influence in the region
In late-2024‚ Hayat Tahrir al-Sham led a quick-moving attack that grabbed parts of Aleppo and moved towards Hama - its the biggest land-grab by opposition groups since Russia took Aleppo back in Dec 2016
The attack hit Russias military weak spots: their air-strikes werent quick enough to stop the rebels and ground forces (which are now spread-thin) couldnt protect key spots. At Kuweires air-base Syrian troops gave up without a fight letting rebels take helicopters planes and air-defense systems
- Mi-8 helicopter
- L-39 training plane
- S-200 missile system
- Strela-10 defense units
- Pantsir-S1 systems
The situation got worse when rebels took al-Safira - a big military factory area thats super-important for making weapons. Now HTS forces are moving towards Hama which sits about 50-miles from Russias naval base in Tartus; this could cut-off Russias bases from its other troops
Moscows problems dont stop there - its partnership with Iran (which started around 8 years ago) is changing fast. After Russia went into Ukraine and the Oct-7 attack happened Russia got closer to Iran but this made Israel mad. Now Israeli forces keep hitting Iranian targets in Syria which makes things harder for Moscow
The Turkey-Russia relationship is also kind of weird now: Turkey (which helps some rebel groups) hasnt gotten much push-back from Russia about the attacks - probably because Moscow needs to keep good ties with Ankara for trade reasons during its Ukraine operation. Plus Russia cant really do much about it anyway since its military is busy elsewhere
