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Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) confirmed on Thursday that Brigadier General Kiyomarth Porhashmi, a senior advisor in the group, was killed in fighting against Syrian rebels in Aleppo.
On Wednesday, Syrian rebels, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, launched a large-scale attack on President Bashar al-Assad's government forces in the northwest Aleppo province.
Opposition factions claimed in a statement on Wednesday that during the day, the rebels captured 13 villages, including the strategic towns of Urm Al-Sughra and Anjara, as well as Base 46, the largest Syrian regime base in the region. It added that 37 people from the regime forces and allied militia were killed in the offensive.
On Thursday reports stated that the fighting had reached 10 kilometers away from the city of Aleppo.
In addition, Syrian and Russian jets have begun conducting airstrikes on rebel positions in the region. In its first statement since the surprise campaign, the Syrian army said it had inflicted heavy losses on what it described as terrorists who had attacked on a wide front.
The army said it was cooperating with Russia and unnamed "friendly forces" to regain ground and restore the situation to what it was.
The Aleppo offensive marks the first major flair-up of fighting in the country since 2020.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Thursday that 153 combatants have been killed in the fighting so far. According to the report, of the casualties, 80 were members of HTS, 19 members were of the “National Army” factions, and 54 members were of regime forces, including at least four officers. In addition, the organization stated that 38 civilians have been killed in Russian airstrikes in the region.