Hours after Syrian rebels stormed Aleppo on Friday night, Abdulkareem Laila entered the city for the first time in eight years. The rebels set up checkpoints and imposed a curfew, and the fighting with the regime forces, whose ranks seemed broken in the face of the lightning offensive, was only abating.
But Laila was determined to return to Salaheddine, the once bustling southern district Syriathe second city he fled with thousands of others in 2016 after a brutal months-long campaign of bombing and siege by the regime.
“To feel dignity and freedom in your neighborhood, these are feelings that are missing for so many Syrians,” said Laila, the administrator of a doctors’ union in nearby opposition-held areas.
But the elation felt by Laila and other supporters of the opposition, which presents itself as a benevolent liberator, was tempered by apprehension. It is unclear how the main rebel faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist group once linked to al-Qaeda, will govern the multicultural city, and residents are bracing for a devastating fight by the regime and its Russian and Iranian allies.
Aleppo, an ancient metropolis of 2 million and once the industrial heart of Syria, has been divided between a rebel-held east and a regime-controlled west in the years since a mass uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s government in 2011, which turned into a civil war.
Assad, along with Iran and Russia, retook the entire city after a bloody offensive in 2016 that saw thousands of people in the east flee to a nearby village held by the opposition under a shaky evacuation deal.
The city was under the control of the Assad government for years before HTS-led rebels seized power last week with apparent ease that stunned many. Tens of thousands in the province have been displaced by the offensive, according to the UN.
Russian and regime warplanes have already begun attacking the city in a counter-offensive, and many fear this is just the beginning of Assad’s wrath.
In the heart of the city, a merchant cautiously reopened despite the sounds of warplanes and distant bombing. Although most businesses in his downtown neighborhood were closed the day the insurgents entered, he said about half had reopened by Monday.
“There is movement on the streets. Looks normal. It’s not normal, but it’s reminiscent of that,” he said, asking not to be identified by name for security reasons. “Almost everyone sticks to their neighborhood and doesn’t go outside except in case of emergency. . . We are in an unknown situation, so that in itself instills fear.”
One resident of a village on the outskirts said they had been under an HTS curfew since the rebels broke in, with bakeries and the local hospital closed.
“We reconciled with the regime a long time ago, but that does not mean we are with them,” the resident said. “And we are also not with the rebels. We are tired of war and chaos — we just want to live normally.”
While those who support the opposition say it gave them a chance to finally make a comeback, regime sympathizers see the rebels as marauding invaders. State news reported Monday that “terrorist organizations” were involved in sabotage, theft and kidnappings in the city. Civilians were also killed in attacks by rebels and government forces, the UN said on Tuesday.
One Aleppo resident told the pro-Assad channel Al Mayadeen that she had burned all her belongings that could mark her as a government supporter, such as books and pictures, so that rebels would not find them in her house.
One of the big unknowns is how HTS — which has tried to rebrand itself as a moderate Islamist group in recent years — will rule the city.
“There are reports of continued services in Aleppo,” Geir Pedersen, the UN’s special envoy for Syria, said on Tuesday. “But there are also fears about what it will mean for service delivery if named entities oversee de facto administrative arrangements in a city of 2 million people.”
Pedersen added: “There are videos and testimonies of detainees — men and women — who have been released from detention centers, including some who say they have been held for more than a decade. But also, there were videos of mass detention of prisoners of war by HTS and armed opposition groups.”
HTS governs its stronghold of Idlib, a region of 3 to 4 million people, through a civilian administration called the Syrian Salvation Government. Experts say that while the group has created a measure of stability, it has also ruled with an iron fist and could impose a version of Islam in Aleppo too conservative for many residents.
Karam Shaar, a political economist at the New Lines Institute think-tank who is originally from the city, said that while HTS has proven effective in governing Idlib, Aleppo will be a bigger challenge.
“While HTS is far more radical. . . however, it is the most competent (opposition government) in terms of governance, I would say in the entire country,” he said. “The rescue government managed to achieve stability in its region – even a little economic growth.”
“Despite that . . . I think they would still be fighting to govern Aleppo,” he continued. “Aleppo is much bigger, much more complex, has more minorities.”
The upstart rebel forces said they were establishing a bureaucracy, with their official channels offering call numbers to Aleppo residents for ministries ranging from transport to electricity, even appointing a director-general for real estate.
They promised to restore basic services and reopen bakeries, and pushed a narrative of religious tolerance. Rebel media reported that residents of the Christian quarter of Aleppo insist that all is well under their new rulers and are buying Christmas trees.
“It is forbidden to touch anyone or attack your property, regardless of sect, not only Muslims – but others, whether Christians or Armenians, or any other sect in Aleppo,” a commander of one of the rebel factions said in a recorded speech at the mosque in the city after taking power.
A tense calm prevailed in the Christian quarter of Suleimanieh, with residents still reeling from the intrusion. “No one understands anything, that’s why they are afraid,” said one restaurant owner who closed his chicken restaurant due to a lack of customers. “We have no idea what to expect: will it be better or worse?”
However, one particular source of concern is the fate of Aleppo’s Kurdish-governed neighborhoods.
HTS’s Turkish-backed allies have seized nearby territories held by Kurdish factions in recent days, and the rebels have offered Kurdish fighters safe passage inside the city. But some Kurds see it as a way to force them out of a place where they have lived for years.
“The area is completely under siege by these factions,” said Mervan Qamishlo, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, claiming Kurdish civilians were in danger.
But for many Syrians, like Monzer, a medical worker who fled Aleppo in 2016 and returned from exile in Turkey on Friday, the end of regime control was exciting.
“For the first time I saw my home, my old workplace, people I hadn’t seen for a long time,” he said, adding that he immediately returned to try to help. “We went to the security departments where we were arrested, beaten, tortured and disappeared to our friends.”
However, Monzer’s homecoming was fleeting. After only a few days in his city, frightened by the regime’s increasingly intense bombardment and rising tensions between the rebels and Kurdish factions, Monzer made a fateful decision: he left Aleppo and returned to Turkey.
Additional reporting by Raya Jalabi and cartography by Steven Bernard
