Syrian President Bashar Assad sought to shore up support from his allies Sunday, after a monitor said a shock rebel offensive saw government forces lose control of Aleppo for the first time since the start of the country's civil war.
An Islamist-dominated rebel alliance attacked forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed government on Wednesday, the same day a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighboring Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah after two months of all-out war.
The jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and allied factions now "control Aleppo city, except the neighborhoods controlled by the Kurdish forces," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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