US secretary of state Antony Blinken admits of having ‘direct contacts’ with Syrian rebel group HTS

US secretary of state Antony Blinken confirmed on Saturday that American officials have been in direct communication with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Syrian rebel group designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US since 2018.“We’ve been in contact with HTS and with other parties,” Blinken told reporters. HTS recently led a coalition of…

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Syrian government loses control of second-largest city Aleppo for first time in 13 years of civil war

Government forces on Sunday lost control of Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city, for the first time since the conflict began in 2011, according to a war monitor. The Islamist-dominated rebel alliance, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), launched a lightning assault that dealt a severe blow to President Bashar al-Assad‘s Russian- and Iranian-backed regime.The…

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