Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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 Even this map is obsolete now because in the latest hours they even advanced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.