Refer Report

The death toll in clashes between rebels and government forces in Aleppo, northwest Syria, rose to 240.

AFP news agency reported on the 29th (local time) that the British Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that more than 240 people were killed as rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the largest Syrian rebel faction, clashed with government forces. . “During the ongoing operation in Aleppo, 218 people have been killed in combat,” an observatory official said, adding that 24 civilians were also killed when the city of Aleppo was shelled.

CNN and others reported that rebels attacked more than 15 villages in Aleppo and occupied 46 government military bases on the 27th, when Israel and the Lebanese armed faction Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire. Afterwards, the rebels claimed to have captured 100 square kilometers of territory in 10 hours.

In Syria, during the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011, there were strong pro-democracy protests against the Assad dictatorship that had been in power for over 40 years. As the Assad regime suppressed it bloody, it spread into a civil war. Afterwards, the civil war expanded into an international war as Iran and Russia helped the Assad regime and the United States supported the rebels. It is estimated that more than 500,000 people died during the civil war. The humanitarian crisis caused by war and disaster continues, including the death of more than 8,000 people in Syria during the major earthquake in Turkiye-Syria that occurred in February last year.

Reporter Choi Woori ecowoori@hani.co.kr

Source: Korean