Islamist-led rebels seized large swathes of territory in Syria, including Aleppo, in a swift offensive that began last week and reversed years of regime gains in the 13-year conflict.
Here is a look at who controls what territory in Syria, where war broke out in 2011 after the government’s repression of peaceful pro-democracy protests and spiralled into a complex conflict drawing in foreign armies and jihadists.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
The Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance, led by al-Qaida’s former Syria branch, dominates the country’s last rebel bastion in the north-west.
Last Wednesday, HTS and its allies launched a major offensive snatching Syria’s second city Aleppo and dozens of towns and villages from government control, after years of regime gains in successive Russian-backed military campaigns.
Beyond Aleppo, rebels also pushed into central Syria’s Hama province, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reporting rebel shelling on Hama city.
The group controls swathes of Idlib province and territory in Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.
The rebels say they are working in a joint operations room with their allies.
The government
Damascus initially lost control over much of Syria to opposition factions, Kurdish fighters and Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.
However, the army gradually clawed back ground with support from key ally Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, while Russian intervention since September 2015 turned the tide in the government’s favour.
Damascus controlled most of Syria, but it lost Aleppo city and swathes of the country’s northwest to the latest rebel offensive. It still holds the country’s south, including Sweida province, where anti-government protests have been occurring regularly for more than a year.
The government also controls central Homs province, most of neighbouring Hama, all of Tartus and most of Latakia provinces on the west coast, and Damascus and its surrounding province.
A chunk of Aleppo province in the north is still in government hands, as well parts of Raqqa province and around half of the eastern Deir ez-Zur province.
Government forces are supported by local groups and pro-Iran fighters, including Hezbollah. Iran says it only deploys military advisers in Syria at the invitation of Damascus. Russian troops are stationed in several government-held areas, including the Hmeimim airbase near the city of Latakia. Moscow says more than 63,000 Russian troops have served in Syria, though the number of soldiers currently present in the country is unclear.
Kurdish fighters
In 2012, government forces withdrew from Kurdish-majority areas in Syria’s north and east, paving the way for Kurds to consolidate control.
They established a semi-autonomous administration there and have gradually expanded territorial control as US-backed Kurdish-led fighters battled IS, dislodging the extremists from their last scraps of Syrian territory in 2019.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), formed in 2015, are considered the Kurds’ de facto army. The forces are an alliance of fighters including Kurds, Syriac Christians and Arab Muslim factions.
The SDF holds around a quarter of Syrian territory, and is considered the second most powerful military force after the army. It controls most of Raqqa province including the city, a former IS stronghold, half of neighbouring Deir ez-Zur, and part of Aleppo province. It also controls Hasakeh province in the north-east, though Syrian government forces are also present there including in the cities of Hasakeh and Qamishli.
US-led coalition forces, which entered Syria in 2014 to fight IS, have set up bases in the Al-Omar oilfield, the country’s largest, as well as the Conoco gas field – both in Kurdish-controlled territory. US personnel are also stationed in Kurdish-controlled Hasakeh and Raqqa provinces.
In 2016, they set up a remote base in southern Syria’s strategic Al-Tanf region, bordering Jordan and Iraq.
Turkey and allied factions
Days after the HTS attack, Ankara-backed groups attacked Kurdish-led fighters in the Tal Rifaat enclave, wedged between territory they control and government-held areas.
The Ankara-backed factions, which control territory along the Turkish border, seized the strategic town of Tal Rifaat and nearby villages in Aleppo province, said the Observatory.
Since 2016, Turkey has carried out successive ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from parts of Syria’s northern border.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long sought to establish a “safe zone” 30 kilometres (20 miles) deep along the frontier.
Pro-Turkish forces control a section of the border from Jarabulus to Afrin in Aleppo province, including major towns such as Al-Bab and Azaz.
Turkey and its Syrian proxies also hold a 120km (75-mile) stretch of border territory from Ras al-Ain in Hasakeh province to Tal Abyad in Raqqa.
Islamic State group
IS militants proclaimed a “caliphate” in June 2014 across swathes of Syria and Iraq, installing a reign of terror. It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019 but its remnants continue to wage deadly attacks, particularly from desert hideouts.
Its fighters are particularly active in the vast Syrian desert, launching attacks against the SDF and the army.
