Rebels had seized most of Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, on Saturday, according to a war monitoring group and to fighters who were combing the streets in search of any remaining pockets of government forces.
The rebels said they had faced little resistance on the ground in Aleppo. But Syrian government warplanes responded with airstrikes on the city for the first time since 2016, according to the war monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The city of Aleppo came to a near standstill on Saturday, with many residents staying indoors for fear of what the sudden flip in control might mean, witnesses said. Others did venture out into quiet streets, welcoming the antigovernment fighters and hugging them. Some of the rebels tried to reassure city residents and sent out at least one van to distribute bread.
The rapid advance on Aleppo came just four days into a surprise rebel offensive launched on Wednesday against the autocratic regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The development is both the most serious challenge to Mr. al-Assad’s rule and the most intense escalation in years in a civil war that had been mostly dormant.
The timing of the assault has raised questions about whether the rebels are exploiting weaknesses across an alliance that has Iran at the center and includes groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as the Syrian regime.
In Aleppo on Saturday, well-armed rebel fighters dressed in camouflage patrolled streets still lined with the ubiquitous posters of Mr. al-Assad. The opposition forces said that although they were in control of nearly the entire city, they had not yet solidified their hold on it.
Within hours from Friday into Saturday, Syrian government soldiers, security forces and police officers had fled the city, according to the observatory. They were replaced by Islamist and Turkish-backed rebels sweeping through on foot, on motorbikes or on trucks mounted with machine guns.
Government military vehicles were parked along the western entrance of the city, seemingly abandoned. Rebels took down the flag used by the government, burning it in the streets, and raised the opposition flag, with its band of green, on a pole overlooking much of the city.
The rebel advance came eight years after a fierce and bloody battle for control over Aleppo in 2016, which dragged on for months. The rebels were ultimately routed in a big blow to their efforts to oust Mr. al-Assad.
Throughout the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011 after a brutal crackdown on peaceful antigovernment protests, Mr. al-Assad has counted on military and political support from two of his closest allies, Iran and Russia, to survive. Russia once again came to Mr. al-Assad’s aid in the latest fighting, but not to the same extent it has in previous years.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that Moscow had carried out airstrikes against the rebel offensive in support of the Syrian military, but it did not say where. The observatory said that the Russian strikes had hit opposition-held areas of two provinces, Aleppo and Idlib. It was not immediately clear whether Russia had struck the city of Aleppo, capital of the Aleppo province.
The Aleppo governor, police and security commanders, and other regime forces have fled the Aleppo city center, the observatory said on Saturday.
Syrian state media challenged the reports of a rebel takeover of most of Aleppo, saying that the military had captured groups of “terrorists” who had been filming inside several neighborhoods to try to prove they had taken control of them. Since the early days of the uprising, the government has characterized virtually all opposition figures as terrorists.
Some former residents of Aleppo returned to the city with the advancing rebel offensive. They and the antigovernment fighters have been sharing photos and videos said to be of themselves in front of Aleppo landmarks. One popular selfie spot on Saturday was in front of an ancient citadel that once served as a military outpost for Mr. al-Assad’s forces at the height of battles for the city years ago.
One older man, seemingly confused about the identity of the city’s new rulers, called out to a group of fighters, “May God protect you; may God protect al-Assad.”
Residents of Aleppo described to The New York Times how control of their city seemingly switched between night and day.
Some of the restaurants and cafes rimming the edges of the citadel’s old walls opened on Saturday, but suddenly they had new patrons: rebel fighters with their weapons and some of the returning residents who fled when the regime fully took over in 2016.
The former residents came back to survey their homes and old neighborhoods, and, in some cases, to reunite with family they have not seen in years.
The rebel alliance is led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which was once linked with Al Qaeda, though it publicly broke ties with the terrorist group years ago. Turkish-backed rebel groups have also joined in.
Some city residents said that they were concerned about what a takeover by a hodgepodge of rebel groups could bring. But that is not their only fear.
The airstrikes on Saturday could portend more aerial attacks and a return to the years when rebels controlled half the city, which was bombarded intensely and indiscriminately by the regime and by Russia, leaving large parts destroyed.
The Syrian civil war began in 2011, displacing about half of the population and sending millions of refugees seeking safety in neighboring countries, like Turkey and Lebanon, and beyond, including in Europe. The conflict was largely stagnant for years until Wednesday, when fighters from an array of armed opposition factions launched the surprise offensive.
In December 2016, the Assad government recaptured all of Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial center, after a prolonged siege and bombardment, aided by Russia, of a shrinking pocket of opposition-held neighborhoods. The takeover was exalted at the time by Mr. al-Assad as a turning point in the war.
In the years that followed, Mr. al-Assad’s regime, supported by the Russian military and Iranian-backed militias, clawed back large parts of the country.
That control could now be threatened, especially with Mr. Assad’s allies, including Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, distracted and weakened by other wars and regional conflicts.
When Abdulkafi al-Hamdo, a professor of English and antigovernment activist from Aleppo, heard the news that rebels had breached the city on Friday, he said that he did not believe it. He fled the city in 2016 and has been living with his family in the western Aleppo countryside since then.
“Even dreaming it was impossible, for Aleppo to be liberated once again,” he said. “But I had faith.”
Once he heard the news of the partial rebel takeover early on Saturday, he said that he had rushed back.
“Even as I was entering Aleppo, I was saying to myself, ‘How did this happen? This was impossible,’” he said.
He ventured back to familiar neighborhoods and landmarks, including the university he graduated from, he said, adding that he had taken a selfie in front of the citadel.
As an opposition supporter, he said he had tried to reassure city residents.
“The people are afraid,” he said. “The regime planted in them fear of the rebels.”
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