Understanding the Terrorists Who Have Taken Control of Aleppo, Syria

In Syria, a growing military and humanitarian catastrophe risks destabilizing the Middle East.

Syria: 13 years of war“Syria may not be in the top news, but the conflict rages on and humanitarian needs are very high,” says Luigi Pandolfi, EU humanitarian aid head of office in Syria. “Despite many challenges, we continue to support the most vulnerable Syrians.” (Photo: EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid)

On November 27, the Syrian terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) made substantial advances, capturing Aleppo — Syria’s second-largest city — in a single day. The group also seized over 100 kilometers of the M5 highway, a critical route linking Aleppo to Damascus.

Encountering minimal resistance from Syrian forces and their allies, HTS is now pressing its advance toward Damascus. Their rapid offensive has plunged the region into chaos, with videos circulating on X of Kurdish women bound and in the captivity of militants.

These haunting images evoke the same visceral horror experienced on October 7, when the world saw women paraded — bloodied and injured — on social media. They serve as a chilling reminder of the atrocities of war and the dehumanization of innocent lives by Islamic terrorist groups.

The X account “Babak Taghvaee — The Crisis Watch” reported: “These painful scenes are reminiscent of the horror of October 7 in Israel. Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists of Turkey have captured hundreds of Kurdish women in Tall Rafaat, Syria. They are already threatening to sell them as sex slaves. The exact thing they did to Yazidi women in 2014.”