The rebels' advancement into Aleppo is part of an offensive which began Wednesday. It is the largest offensive against the Syrian government to develop in years. The rebels had been forced out of the city in 2016 by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's army. This marks the first time since then that they have reached Aleppo.

The British-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said that more than 300 people had been killed since the start of the offensive launched by militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions on Wednesday in which dozens of villages have been seized.