Syrian opposition factions on Friday have freed dozens of prisoners in the northern city of Aleppo, as the Turkish-backed groups launched attacks on Aleppo for the first time in years.
Informed sources told Zaman al-Wasl that the factions of the "Deterrence of Aggression" operations room were able to free dozens of prisoners from the "Tariq bin Ziyad" school prison near the "Al-Rahman" mosque in the center of Aleppo, and the central prison, after entering the city's neighborhoods and taking control of them.
The sources confirmed that among the detainees who were freed were women from various Syrian governorates, in addition to the liberation of a small number of political detainees from the prisons of the Military Security Branch basements near the Ashrafieh neighborhood and the Air Force Intelligence prison in the Al-A'dhamiyah neighborhood in Aleppo.
The factions had entered most of the city's neighborhoods, and announced the imposition of a curfew starting from Friday night until Saturday morning, with the aim of combing the city from the remnants of the regime, and removing mines, to preserve the safety of the residents.
Turkish-backed factions reached Syria’s second city of Aleppo Friday, as they pressed a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed government.
The fighting is some of the deadliest in years, with 277 people killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Most of the dead have been combatants but the toll also includes 24 civilians, most killed in Russian airstrikes.
The offensive began on Wednesday, the same day that a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighboring Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Earlier, four civilians including two students were killed when rebel groups shelled a building housing university students on Friday, the state news agency SANA reported.
Rebels led by the Hay’et Tahrir al-Shams armed group on Wednesday launched an offensive, capturing a dozen towns and villages in the northwestern province of Aleppo.
The assault is the most intense fighting in northwestern Syria since 2020, when government forces seized areas previously controlled by opposition fighters, and has come after weeks of low-simmering violence.
Russian and Syrian warplanes bombed rebel-held areas northwest Syria near the border with Turkiye on Thursday to try to push back the offensive that had captured territory for the first time in years, Syrian army and rebel sources said.
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