ERIC DEGGANS, HOST:
Now to the Middle East and a stunning turn of events in Syria. President Bashar al-Assad was seen as having largely won the Syrian civil war with the help of Russia and Iran-backed militias. That war killed half a million people and uprooted millions more. Now rebels have taken the northern city of Aleppo and are making other gains in a surprise offensive. Joining us now to talk about all of this is NPR's Ruth Sherlock. Hey, Ruth.
RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: Hey, good morning.
DEGGANS: So what's the latest?
SHERLOCK: Well, we're seeing rebel militias inside Aleppo. This is the historic mercantile city in Syria's north, its second most populous city. There are now images and videos of rebel fighters inside the ancient citadel, tearing down pictures of President Bashar al-Assad and celebrating this sudden collapse of regime lines in the area. I reached one member of the armed group who - one of the armed groups who spoke to me without giving his name as he didn't have permission from the overall command yet.
UNIDENTIFIED REBEL: (Non-English language spoken).
SHERLOCK: He's saying, "you know, honestly, the feeling is indescribable" and that he's been in Aleppo celebrating the takeover. All this happened in just over 72 hours after years of stalemate. And he says, rebel groups have now taken control of his home village in the area, as well. And after the call with me, he was going back to that village for the first time in 11 years. He says regime lines collapsed faster than rebels expected and that they're now fighting nearer to Hama in central Syria.
SHERLOCK: So has there been a military response from the Syrian government?
SHERLOCK: In what's quite a rare admission of loss for the Syrian army, they say that there are dozens of soldiers killed from this rebel advance. The regime says it's hitting back with airstrikes in Aleppo province and Russia, its allies, doing the same in Aleppo and Idlib provinces and around Hama. And the army told Syrian media that it's trying to regroup to prepare a counteroffensive.
DEGGANS: Well, that raises the question, who exactly are these insurgents?
SHERLOCK: And, you know, that really is the question. The leading faction here is this group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, and this group was formed of many militias from this long civil war. And these include Jabhat al-Nusra, which had links with al-Qaida. So the U.S., Russia and several other countries designate this group as a terrorist organization. And there's also other factions in this offensive supported by Turkey, so it is a myriad.
But in recent years, you know, HTS has been trying to present itself as a kind of more palatable option, inviting Western journalists to the areas in the North it controlled in Syria. But you can understand this is a country with many sects, many religious sects - Christians, Druze Alawites. And we've also been speaking with people in government-held areas who are -terrified of what a Sunni rebel advance means for them.
DEGGANS: So what can you tell us about Syria's president? Is he still getting support from Russia and Iran?
SHERLOCK: Yeah, I mean, look, the backdrop to all this is that this regime is notorious for its brutality. Any dissent has been crushed in the decades that it's been in power. Tens of thousands of Syrians have disappeared into government jails, often without trial, and there's documented, you know, widespread torture and mass killings.
And so that's kind of a good context for how this is all happening. Russia and Iran still are backing this regime because they have interests in Syria. Russia likes to - controls the port of Tartus on the Mediterranean. The Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah has used Syria as a route to get weapons into Lebanon.
And one of the reasons for why the rebels may have made such great advances now is that Russia is especially stretched in the war in Ukraine. And there's been intense Israeli airstrikes on this Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Syria and in Lebanon, and that's weakened the group's front-line positions in Syria. So Damascus right now is much more exposed than it has been in previous years.
DEGGANS: That's NPR's international correspondent Ruth Sherlock. Ruth, thank you so much.
SHERLOCK: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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