Rebel forces claim Aleppo: Strategic timing of Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire

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00:00For more on the latest developments in northern Syria, France News Journalist Waseem Nasser joins me on set. Hi Waseem.

00:08So you met the leader of HTS last year, didn't you? Who are those rebels and what's happening in northern Syria?

00:17Well actually at Tahrir al-Sham, it's an agglomeration of many groups.

00:21Joulani, who I met, indeed, was the head of the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.

00:26But they left Al-Qaeda, they denounced Al-Qaeda in 2016, and they even fight Al-Qaeda.

00:32They even killed the fourth caliph of the Islamic State who was hiding in Idlib.

00:37And when I spoke to them, when I spoke to him and to others, they told me we denounce global jihad.

00:43We are concentrating on bringing our people back to their homes and on fighting the regime of Assad.

00:49And Iran added Russia. So the goals are in Syria.

00:54And so what happened on Wednesday, it's HTS but also other rebel groups put up a fight

00:59and made this major, gave this major blow to the Syrian army, but not only the Syrian army,

01:05to Shia militias and to Hezbollah who is opposed in those areas.

01:09All we see in blue here are the advancements since Wednesday and the takeover of Aleppo, as you see,

01:15and Marat Noman. Even this map is obsolete now because in the latest hours they even advanced

01:20toward Hama and they took the airport of Kuwait and many other major military hubs and towns in those areas.

01:29And we have to see, we're going to look at the footage.

01:32We see for the first time they entered Aleppo at Saadallah al-Jabari Square here that we see.

01:37And we saw them this morning in the fortress of Aleppo, the citadel of Aleppo this morning, a historic site.

01:46We saw them at the Basil Assad statue here this morning.

01:51It was bombed by Russian planes, as you said earlier.

01:55But the most important part of the footage that we got is we saw them, for example, in Saraqeb,

01:59the town that we saw earlier on the map. We're going to see it here.

02:03And what's very notable in this video is that those towns are ghost towns since the takeover of the Syrian army in 2016

02:11with the help of the Iranian IRGC. People never came back.

02:15So those people fighting today are fighting to go back to those towns.

02:18We have another footage of Marat Noman, another major town where demonstrations started in 2011

02:23against President Assad at the time. And we see in this footage it is a ghost town.

02:28So this is what's happening, actually. People are fighting to go back to their own towns.

02:33One other major thing that happened this morning, very important, is the opening of the front of Tadif,

02:40where we have other factions of the Syrian rebels who entered from another area.

02:45It's a multi-front fight, actually, against the Syrian army in Tadif.

02:49And we saw the Kurdish YPG, we have also footage, take the airport of Aleppo.

02:54When the Syrian army left, the Kurds went in.

02:57And the latest information that we have, we also have footage of the Kurds in the airport of Aleppo.

03:01Here it is. And the latest information that I got a few hours ago,

03:06it said the Kurds left and the Syrian rebels entered without a fight into the airport of Aleppo.

03:12So it seems like, is this a ragtag coalition of different factions of opposition,

03:18or do they have a central sort of command center?

03:21Could you explain to us what was behind this advance, this recent advance, the lightning, really,

03:27and what's behind their surprise assault?

03:30This assault was prepared since years, and the hardest part of it is al-Tahrir al-Sham.

03:37Al-Tahrir al-Sham is in command and control. They use, for example, explosive drones.

03:41We have footage how it began on Wednesday with drones that they developed themselves.

03:47Here we see. And we also saw them using small drones, as we see in Ukraine,

03:52remembering that it all started in Syria in 2014, the use of drones.

03:55And here it is against a Syrian army tank.

03:58And HHS also issued footage for the first time showing their drone capacity.

04:03Presumably much more advanced than during the civil war.

04:05Exactly, because they have the human resources to make them better.

04:09And here it is. And that made a big difference on the ground.

04:13We have also another footage of their special forces of Al-Tahrir al-Sham

04:17and the armored vehicles that they developed also in the town of Saraqib.

04:21We'll see it during the fight for the town of Saraqib.

04:24And here it is. And what you see is homemade.

04:27They made it themselves, and they prepared for this fight.

04:31And parts, very important things, too, is that the population is going back to their towns on one hand.

04:37On the other hand, Giuliani addressed the population of Aleppo, telling them,

04:41stay, don't leave, we're not against you.

04:43And the person in charge of minorities at Al-Tahrir al-Sham addressed the Christians, for example,

04:49telling them, stay where you are, you're going to have the same treatments as the Christians in Aleppo,

04:53which I visited, too, who still have their churches, still have their towns.

04:56So they reassured the local population,

05:00which helped them also in making this huge contest that quick without any resistance, actually.

05:06Sort of capitalizing on people's frustration with the regime

05:09at the same time as trying to take control of more territory.

05:12Exactly. And it happened now. People ask why now, actually.

05:15Because we're going to see footage of Russians bombing the town of Ariha at night on the 23rd of November.

05:22And this kind of bombing is ongoing since eight years,

05:26with drones, with fighters, with artillery against the people who found refuge in Idlib.

05:35So those people were putting pressure on Al-Tahrir al-Sham to put up the fight.

05:38And myself, I filmed the footage in the camp of Atmeh,

05:43where you're going to see you have more than one million and a half displaced people.

05:47We're not talking about refugees, I made a mistake.

05:49There are Syrians who are displaced into this area.

05:52And they were putting pressure on HDS to take them back to their own towns.

05:57And another factor is that the Russians that used to have 40 fighter planes in Syria in 2015,

06:02today have a few special forces. One of them died here, a drone operator.

06:07And they have less than 10 airplanes based in Syria.

06:11So they want to help, they hit, they want to help the Syrian regime.

06:14And they hit, we have footage of hitting them this morning, the town of Idlib.

06:18But they don't have results because they have very few forces because of the war in Ukraine,

06:22the lack of ammunition. And the most important also part of the story

06:26is that Israel hit Hezbollah very hard and Shia militias very hard.

06:30Meaning that they weakened them and HDS saw an opportunity.

06:34And this is why they waited for signing the ceasefire and they didn't put up the fight during the war

06:39for not them to be accused of helping Israel.

06:42So they really strategically began on the day that the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel went into effect.

06:48Exactly, because they knew that the opportunity will close very quickly

06:51if Hezbollah and Shia militias take their breath again.

06:54And so they use this opportunity to make this attack,

06:58which explains also the timing of the attack.

07:01We have footage also of Syrian rebels tearing down this photo of Qasem Soleimani.

07:08Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force of the IAGC.

07:11Why? Because Qasem Soleimani was heading the forces of the Syrian regime

07:15when they took back Aleppo in 2016.

07:18So they have a long blood debt with the Iranians.

07:21And this is why it happened now, because the Iranians are very weak

07:25and not strong enough to keep upholding the Syrian regime.

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