STORY: Intense fighting in northwestern Syria over the last three days between government forces and rebels has killed 27 civilians, including children.
That's according to a UN official who called the violence unfolding in Syria "deeply" alarming.
Rebels launched an incursion on Wednesday into a dozen towns and villages in the northwestern province of Aleppo, which is controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.
This rebel fighter said they liberated the whole western countryside of Aleppo, and that these military vehicles are now in their hands.
But the Syrian military said it continued to confront the attack, and that it had inflicted heavy losses on the insurgents.
The attack was the biggest since March of 2020, when Russia and Turkey, which supports some of the rebels in the northwest, agreed to a deal that de-escalated the conflict.
Fighters said Russian and Syrian warplanes bombed the area near the border with Turkey on Thursday to try to push back an insurgent offensive that has captured territory for the first time in years.
