On Wednesday, field developments in Syria witnessed a remarkable acceleration on all axes surrounding the city of Hama in the center of the country, as the opposition factions sought to surround the city from the north, east and west, through their successive announcements of control over villages and towns surrounding the city.

Syrian opposition factions advanced rapidly into the city of Aleppo, following a surprise attack, so that the entire city became outside the control of the Syrian regime forces.

The seizure of advanced military equipment by opposition forces in northern Syria, including the Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system, is a major and complex shift in the ongoing conflict, Newsweek reported.

Aleppo, in northern Syria and its second largest city, has become outside the control of the Syrian regime for the first time since the outbreak of the Syrian war, with the armed Syrian opposition factions controlling all the neighborhoods where the regime forces were deployed.

The Russian military announced on Friday that its air forces were bombing Syrian opposition factions in an operation to repel their attack on the city of Aleppo, according to official Russian news agencies, while Iran accused Israel and the United States of being behind the opposition attacks in Syria, while Türkiye demanded a halt to the attacks on Idlib.