'Aleppo city out of Syria govt control for first time'

Iran says to 'firmly support' Damascus after rebel attacks

TEHRAN/ BEIRUT:

Syria's second city of Aleppo is no longer under the control of President Bashar al-Assad's government, for the first time since the country's conflict began, a war monitor said Sunday.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied rebel factions "control Aleppo city, except the neighbourhoods controlled by the Kurdish forces. For the first time since the conflict started in 2012, Aleppo city is out of control of Syrian regime forces," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

Meanwhile, Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said Sunday he will leave Tehran for Damascus to deliver a message of support for Syria's government and armed forces, state media said, after a lighting advance by rebels.

Tehran has been a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the civil war that broke out in 2011. Iran maintains it does not have combat troops in Syria, only officers who provide military advice and training.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, of Lebanon, has for years fought on the side of the Syrian government.

"I am going to Damascus to convey the message of the Islamic Republic to the Syrian government," Araghchi said, emphasising Tehran will "firmly support the Syrian government and army," the IRNA state news agency reported.

Rebels on Saturday seized Aleppo's airport and dozens of nearby towns after overrunning most of Syria's second city Aleppo, a war monitor said.

Syria's army confirmed that the rebels had entered "large parts" of the city of around two million people and said "dozens of men from our armed forces were killed".

Araghchi again called the surprise rebel offensive a plot by the United States and Israel.

"The Syrian army will once again win over these terrorist groups as in the past," the foreign minister added.

An Iranian news agency reported earlier that a general in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed in Syria on Thursday during the fighting. APP