Pro-Iranian armed groups enter Syria to support Syrian army

Iranian-backed groups entered Syria overnight from Iraq and were heading to northern Syria to beef up Syrian army forces battling a coalition of rebels, according to two Syrian army sources.

Dozens of Iran-aligned Iraqi Hashd al Shaabi fighters, known as the Population Mobilisation Forces (PMF), from Iraq also crossed into Syria through a military route near Al Bukamal crossing, a senior Syrian army source told Reuters.

"These are fresh reinforcements being sent to aid our comrades on the front lines in the north," saying the militias included Iraq's Katiab Hezbollah and Fatemiyoun groups.

The Syrian army said on Saturday dozens of its soldiers had been killed in a major attack led by rebels who swept into the city of Aleppo, forcing the army to redeploy in the biggest challenge to President Bashar al-Assad in years.

Forces from the Syrian regime and its ally Russia bombarded areas held by the Turkey-backed rebel coalition, led by Islamist Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other secular armed groups in Idlib and Aleppo.

The army said it had recaptured several towns that rebels had overrun in recent days. 

At least 25 people were killed in northwestern Syria in air strikes carried out by the Syrian government and Russia, the Syrian opposition-run rescue service known as the White Helmets said early on Monday.

The insurgents seized control of all of Idlib province in recent days, the boldest rebel assault for years in a civil war where front lines had largely been frozen since 2020. They also seized swathes of Aleppo and Hama, and managed to block the strategic M5 highway.