Syrian Rebel Operations Room Including Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) Offers Security To Defecting Regime Officers, Kurdish Civilians; Conflicting Reports Whether SDF Forces Have Left Aleppo City

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December 2, 2024

On November 27, 2024, the Al-Fath Al-Mubin operations room, which includes Syrian jihadi group Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) and other jihadi and rebel factions, announced a new offensive, Operation Repelling the Aggression, under the auspices of a new body, the Military Operations Command. The campaign's stated goals are to enable displaced Syrians to return to their homes in areas captured by the Assad regime.[1]

On November 29, the Military Operations Command announced that its fighters had entered the major city of Aleppo. It further claimed to have captured dozens of towns and villages in the countryside west and south of Aleppo and east and south of Idlib, and that its forces were quickly advancing in the Aleppo and Hama countrysides.

The Military Operations Command urged regime soldiers to defect, reporting that it had secured the defection of several regime soldiers in Aleppo city. HTS leader Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani also guaranteed the safety of defectors from regime forces. The Military Operations Command, Department of Political Affairs (DPA) in the HTS-linked Syrian Salvation Government (SSG), and Al-Joulani sought to reassure civilians in the newly-captured areas, including Shi'ite villagers, that they would be unharmed and invited them to cooperate with rebel forces in "building the Syria of the future."[2]

Military Operations Command Promises Safety To Defecting Regime Officers, Offers Safe Passage Out Of Aleppo To SDF, Reassures Kurdish Civilians

On December 1, the Military Operations Command issued an "important and urgent statement" addressing Assad regime officers and commanders in all "occupied Syrian cities," declaring its readiness to secure the defection of any officer willing to lay down his arms and move to rebel-controlled areas. It further declared: "You have seen and experienced yourselves how your army collapsed in the Repealing the Aggression battle. An intelligent person takes a lesson from others before it is too late."[3]

The Military Operations Command issued a second statement that day addressed to all Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) members in Aleppo city. Stressing that the Military Operations Command is fighting the "criminal Assad regime" and seeks to "distance the Iranian militias from our cities and villages, to guarantee our people's welfare and safe return," it offered SDF members safe passage out of the city with their weapons to northeastern Syria. The statement further asserted that Syrian Kurds are "an integral part of Syrian society" and have a right to participate in building the country, reassuring Kurdish civilians in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in northern Aleppo and other towns that they would be protected.[4]

HTS-Linked DPA Guarantees Kurds' Safety In Their Neighborhoods

The Department of Political Affairs (DPA) in the HTS-linked Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) issued a statement in Arabic and English versions on December 2, titled "A Message to the Kurds of Syria in the Free City of Aleppo." Announcing that Syria's Kurds have the same right to "dignity and freedom" as all the country's people and are "an integral part of the diverse Syrian identity that we all cherish," the DPA declared that "in the future Syria … diversity is our strength, not a weakness." Rejecting the "barbaric practices" the Islamic State (ISIS) committed against Kurds, such as enslaving some of them, the DPA declared that such actions "do not conform to the teachings of our true religion or our authentic revolutionary values." Vowing that "we will not allow anyone to disrupt or attempt to undermine the brotherhood and cooperation between all parts of Syrian society," the DPA affirmed: "We stand with the Kurds … in building the future Syria, in which justice and dignity prevail for all." The DPA guaranteed the security of Kurdish civilians "in their original areas in the city of Aleppo," stating that the city "will be stronger with its diversity."[5]

Reports Of SDF, Kurdish Civilians Leaving Aleppo; Conflicting Claims That SDF Is Still Targeting Civilians In The City

There have been conflicting reports of whether SDF forces have left Sheikh Maqsoud and other parts of the city.

On December 2, several Syrian rebel Telegram channels shared a brief video clip showing a large convoy of people traveling on a road, in vehicles and on foot. The channels described the scene as showing SDF fighters - pejoratively referred to as the "terrorist Qandil gangs," whose leaders are based in the Qandil Mountains on the Iraqi-Turkish border – and   their families leaving Aleppo toward the areas of eastern Syria east of the Euphrates.[6]

However, shortly afterwards, the channels published additional posts asserting that reports of the SDF leaving Sheikh Maqsoud and Al-Ashrafiyah were false. Warning civilians to avoid the city's northern neighborhoods, where "the terrorists are killing civilians by sniping, as they usually do," they urged people to trust only official reports by the MMO.[7]

 

 

[3] Telegram.me/aleamaliaat_aleaskaria, December 1, 2024.

[4] Telegram.me/aleamaliaat_aleaskaria, December 1, 2024.

[5] Telegram.me/syriadpa, December 2, 2024.

[6] Telegram.me/BNN_SYR, December 2, 2024.

[7] Telegram.me/BNN_SYR, December 2, 2024.

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