Syrian forces step up offensive with move on Aleppo

Syrian government forces last week stepped up an ambitious offensive to take back large parts of the country, analysts said.

Last Friday, forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad but led by Iranian fighters moved to capture the strategic highway linking Aleppo – once the largest city and commercial centre - to the country’s capital, Damascus.

They were supported by Russian airstrikes and ran into US-backed rebel groups trying to stem the tide.

“I suspect Assad always wanted to take back Aleppo because it is such an important city and retaking it has such strategic and symbolic importance” Emile Hokayem, a Middle East analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told The Wall Street Journal.

Another analyst told the newspaper al-Assad’s latest move appeared to go beyond simply trying to re-stabilise his regime.

Small attacks had been staged over the last two weeks in the provinces of Hama, Latakia and Homs with the help of Iranian and Hezbollah fighters.