U.S.-backed group fights Syrian army as reignited conflict spreads

3/12/2024 21:20

        Fighters from a U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led coalition battled Syrian government forces in northeast Syria early on Tuesday, both sides said, opening a new front for President Bashar al-Assad who lost Aleppo in a sudden rebel advance last week.
        
        Airstrikes also targeted Iran-backed militia groups supporting Syrian government forces in the strategically vital region, a security source in eastern Syria and a Syrian army source said.
        
        The sources both blamed the airstrikes on the U.S.-led military coalition which operates against Islamic State in Syria and has a small detachment of American troops on the ground.
        
        The fighting around a cluster of villages across the Euphrates river from regional capital Deir al-Zor complicates the military picture for Assad, whose forces were focused overnight on staunching a renewed rebel assault near Hama.
        
        Last week's rebel assault that captured Aleppo - Syria's largest city before the war - is the biggest offensive for years in a conflict whose frontlines had been frozen since 2020.