AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In Syria, where government forces and rebel fighters have essentially been locked in a stalemate for over a decade, an unexpected opposition takeover last week of the country's second largest city has redrawn the battle lines. A group that's listed by the U.S. as a terrorist organization has taken control of Aleppo and is pushing south. NPR's Jane Arraf joins us now from Amman with the latest. Hi, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so tell us more about what's been happening on the ground in Syria?
ARRAF: Well, first, it's really, really fluid. But that coalition of opposition fighters that managed to seize Aleppo last week from government forces are still holding it. And the remarkable thing is the government forces they seized it from are backed by Iran and Russia. So those Turkish-backed forces that seized the city are now trying to push to the strategic city of Hama...
CHANG: OK.
ARRAF: ...Which would be even more of a challenge for the Syrian regime.
CHANG: All right, a lot of moving parts here. Can you just describe for us this coalition of fighters? Like, who are they exactly?
ARRAF: Well, here's the short version. The fighters are led by a group called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham. And that's the name in Arabic that refers to liberating the Levant, which is the region that Syria is a part of. It's an Arab Sunni Muslim group whose stated goal is Islamic rule in Syria and toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Now, Assad, despite fighting a civil war for the past decade, has been able to hold on to power, partly with the help of Iran. The group has past ties to an al-Qaida affiliate. But it's tried to reassure civilians that they don't intend to harm them. Despite that, though, there appears to be quite a lot of fear.
CHANG: Well, what are civilians in Syria doing at this point?
ARRAF: Well, thousands of Kurdish residents, for instance, of Aleppo and surrounding villages are reported to be fleeing. And in the fighting itself, a U.K.-based monitoring group says more than 400 fighters and civilians have been killed. The Kurdish-led forces leader, Mazloum Abdi, who's a U.S. ally, says he's negotiating a safe corridor to try to secure passage for people into the region that's held by the Kurds. But, Ailsa, winter is setting in. There's no heat. There's already not much food, and it looks like it could be a looming humanitarian crisis.
CHANG: Well, I'm trying to keep track of all the different players here, all the different countries involved. What is the role of the U.S. in all of this?
ARRAF: The U.S. still has about 1,000 troops in Syria helping the Kurdish-led opposition fight remnants of Isis. And Iran and several other countries also have a large stake there. Here's Maria Fantappie, the Middle East program director at the Institute of International Affairs in Rome.
MARIA FANTAPPIE: The future order in Syria will be also the outcome of regional arrangement. And they think that between key regional players, Turkey, the Gulf State, to a certain extent, Israel, and we did also the Americans.
ARRAF: In fact, the Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers met today. The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan said the developments in Aleppo shows the need for the Syrian regime to negotiate with the opposition. And on the American side, Fantappie says that a lot depends on what approach the new U.S. administration will take, both towards Syria and Iran.
CHANG: Well, as we've been saying, there's been a stalemate for years now. Why do you think there's been a rise in activity now?
ARRAF: Well, it just seems like a good time for an opposition coalition to try to tackle groups that are backed by Iran and Russia. Iran has been weakened because it's been fighting a proxy war, essentially, with its support for Hezbollah - the Lebanese militant group that's fighting Israel. And Russia has been weakened because it's been fighting that now long-running war in Ukraine. So what everyone's worried about really is that it's one thing to weaken the Syrian regime, but you weaken them too much, and many people are afraid of those unintended consequences, like the kind that happened in Iraq after the U.S. invasion, for instance.
CHANG: That is NPR's Jane Arraf. Thank you, Jane.
ARRAF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
