Syrian insurgents enter Aleppo after setting off two car bombs, a monitoring group and reports say

Rebels entered neighborhoods in Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, clashing with government forces after setting off two car bombs on Friday. The incident, reported by a leading war monitoring group and The Associated Press, has drawn international attention to a country mired in a simmering civil war for more than a decade.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the monitoring organization, said there were fierce clashes between the attacking insurgents and regime forces. Fighting has escalated significantly since rebels launched a surprise offensive on Wednesday, capturing towns and villages as they advanced toward Aleppo.

The breakthrough marked the first time opposition forces laid siege to the city since 2016, when they were driven out of Aleppo’s eastern neighborhoods during a military operation in which Syrian troops were backed by Russia and Iran. Four years ago, a ceasefire ended the worst of the violence, but the rebels’ new advance has upended a period of relative calm.

Witnesses who spoke to The Associated Press said Aleppo residents fled areas on the western edge amid rockets and gunfire. The AP said an insurgent commander posted a recorded message on social media urging the city’s residents to cooperate with the rebels. The rebels are led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS for short.

Syrian state media reports cited by the AP said projectiles fired by insurgents hit student housing at Aleppo University in the city center, killing four people, including two students. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of information sources on the ground, said at least 121 people had been killed since HTS’s shock offensive began.