Syrian rebels enter Aleppo city during surprise offensive

Aleppo: Armed rebels entered Syria's Aleppo city three days after launching a surprise offensive on Friday, CNN reported.

This is the first time the rebels have entered the city since the Syrian government gained control of the city in 2016.

The rebel forces launched a surprise attack earlier this week on Wednesday as they swept through several villages outside the city, reigniting the conflict.

According to a video geolocated by CNN, a rebel fighter could be seen driving through the deserted streets on the western side of Aleppo city.

The Syrian military said that it faced a "major attack", following which it is "reinforcing all locations along the various battlefronts." However, the locals claimed that forces had pulled back from the neighbourhood in the western part of Aleppo.

"Our forces have begun entering the city of Aleppo," said the newly formed rebel coalition, the Military Operations Command.

Earlier as reported by CNN, The rebel group stated that they had captured the Military Scientific Research Center on the outskirts of Aleppo city following the "intense clashes with the regime forces and Iranian militias."

On Friday, Syrian rebels killed four people by an artillery shell strike at Aleppo University's student housing, according to Syria's state news agency, SANA.
However, rebels group spokesperson Hassan Abdulghani refuted the accusations by the Syrian government media as "baseless lies."

Aleppo University employee, who remained anonymous due to security reasons said that the said artillery hit the second floor of the said student's housing of the university. A video circulating on social media, geolocated by CNN, shows young men running out of a dormitory in Aleppo University campus and carrying an injured individual.

On Thursday the airstrikes by these rebel groups killed at least 15 people, including six children and two women in Aleppo and Idlib countryside, according to the White Helmets, a volunteer rescue group, as reported by CNN
Iranian state media said that Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Kioumars Pourhashemi was also killed in the city.