BEIRUT (AP) — Insurgents breached Syria’s largest city Friday and clashed with government forces for the first time since 2016, according to a war monitor and fighters, in a surprise attack that sent residents fleeing and added fresh uncertainty to a region reeling from multiple wars.

The fighting is a significant escalation since rebels launched a surprise offensive earlier this week, seizing towns and villages as they cut a path toward Syria’s second-largest city.

Jihadists and their Turkish-backed allies shelled Syria's second city Aleppo on Friday, in a major offensive against government troops that has sparked some of the deadliest fighting the country has seen in years.

The lightning advance by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham abruptly redrew the front lines of Syria’s civil war for the first time in years.

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Syrian rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad said on Friday they had reached the heart of the northern city of Aleppo, after a surprise sweep through government-held towns and nearly a decade after having been forced out of the city.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, explains what the latest breach by insurgents into Syria's second-largest city Aleppo means for the ongoing Syrian civil war.

Rebel forces in Syria say they have entered Syria's second-largest city, Aleppo, in the biggest offensive against the government in years. Video posted on a channel affiliated with the rebels appears to show their fighters in vehicles inside the city.

Thousands of Syrian insurgents have pushed on with their advances on government-held areas in the country’s northwest