Acknowledging the rebel advance, the Syrian army command said insurgents had entered much of Aleppo.

After the army said it was preparing a counterattack, airstrikes targeted rebel gatherings and convoys in the city, the pro-Damascus newspaper al-Watan reported. One strike caused casualties in Aleppo’s Basel square, a resident told Reuters.

The state-run Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of the Enemy Parties in Syria said missile and bomb strikes against the rebels had targeted “militant concentrations, command posts, depots, and artillery positions” in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. It claimed about 300 rebel fighters were killed in the attacks.

Overnight, images from Aleppo showed a group of rebel fighters gathered in the city’s Saadallah al-Jabiri Square, with a billboard of Assad looming behind them.

Images filmed on Saturday showed people posing for photos on a toppled statue of Bassel al-Assad, the president’s late brother. Fighters zipped around the city in trucks and milled around in the streets. A man waved a Syrian opposition flag as he stood near Aleppo’s historic citadel.

The Syrian military command said militants had attacked in large numbers and from multiple directions, prompting “our armed forces to carry out a redeployment operation aimed at strengthening the defence lines in order to absorb the attack, preserve the lives of civilians and soldiers”.

The rebels also took control of Aleppo airport, according to a statement by their operations room and a security source.

Two rebel sources also said the insurgents had captured the city of Maraat al-Numan in Idlib province, bringing all of that area under their control.

The surge in fighting has raised the prospect of another violent front reopening in the Middle East, while US-backed Israel is fighting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both groups are backed by Iran. A truce between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday.

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Robert Ford, the last-serving US ambassador to Syria, pointed to months of Israeli strikes on Syrian and Hezbollah targets in the area, and to Israel’s ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon as factors providing Syria’s rebels with the opportunity to advance.

With Assad backed by Russia and Iran, and Turkey supporting some of the rebels in the north-west where it maintains troops, the offensive has brought into focus the conflict’s knotted geopolitics. Fighting in the north-west had largely abated since Turkey and Russia reached a de-escalation agreement in 2020.

Reuters