Islamist-led rebels seized large swathes of Syria in a swift offensive launched last week, reversing years of gains by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the 13-year war.
Here is a look at who controls what territory in Syria, where war began in 2011 following the government’s crackdown on peaceful democracy protests.
– Hayat Tahrir al-Sham –
The Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance, rooted in Al-Qaeda’s former Syria branch, rules the country’s last rebel bastion in the northwest.
Last Wednesday, HTS and its rebel allies launched a major offensive capturing Syria’s second city Aleppo and dozens of towns and villages from government control.
The offensive followed years of relative calm after successive government wins in Russian-backed military campaigns.
Now, the rebels have almost doubled the territory they control, according to Fabrice Balanche, a lecturer at the University Lumiere Lyon 2 in France.
Beyond Aleppo, rebels also pushed into central Syria’s Hama province, with the the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reporting deadly rebel shelling on Hama city.
– The government –
Early in the war, Assad’s government in Damascus lost control over much of Syria to opposition factions, Kurdish fighters and Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.
It gradually clawed back ground with support from Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, while Russia’s intervention since September 2015 turned the tide in its favour.
The latest rebel offensive has seen Aleppo city fall out of government control for the first time.
The army still holds the country’s south, including Sweida province, where anti-government protests have occurred frequently over the past year.
The government also controls central Homs province, most of neighbouring Hama, all of Tartus and most of Latakia provinces on the west coast, and Damascus and its surrounding province.
A chunk of Aleppo province in the north is still in government hands, as well parts of Raqa province and around half of Deir Ezzor in the east.
Government forces are backed by local groups and pro-Iran fighters.
Iran says it only deploys military advisers in Syria at the invitation of Damascus.
Russian troops are stationed in several government-held areas, including the Hmeimim airbase near the city of Latakia on the Mediterranean.
– Kurdish fighters –
In 2012, government forces withdrew from Kurdish-majority areas in Syria’s north and east, paving the way for Kurds to establish self-rule under a semi-autonomous administration.
They have gradually expanded territorial control as US-backed Kurdish-led fighters battled IS, dislodging the extremists from their last scraps of Syrian territory in 2019.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, formed in 2015, are considered the Kurds’ de facto army.
The force is an alliance of fighters including Kurds, Syriac Christians and Arab Muslim factions.
The SDF holds around a quarter of Syrian territory, and is considered the second most powerful military force after the army.
An estimated three million people live in areas under Kurdish control, about a third of them ethnic Kurds, according to Balanche.
It controls most of Raqa province including the city, a former IS stronghold, half of neighbouring Deir Ezzor province, and part of Aleppo province.
It also controls Hasakeh province in the northeast, though Syrian government forces are also present there.
US-led coalition forces, which entered Syria in 2014 to fight IS, have set up bases in the Al-Omar oil field, the country’s largest, as well as the Conoco gas field — both in Kurdish-controlled territory.
US personnel are also stationed in Hasakeh and Raqa provinces.
In 2016, they set up a remote base in southern Syria’s strategic Al-Tanf region, bordering Jordan and Iraq.
– Turkey and allied factions –
Parallel to the HTS-led offensive, Turkish-backed groups attacked Kurdish-led fighters in the Tal Rifaat enclave, wedged between territory they control and government-held areas.
The Ankara-backed factions seized the strategic town of Tal Rifaat and nearby villages in Aleppo province, according to the Observatory.
Pro-Turkish forces control two sections of the border from Jarabulus to Afrin in Aleppo province, as well as a 120-kilometre (75-mile) stretch of border territory from Ras al-Ain in Hasakeh province to Tal Abyad in Raqa.
Since 2016, Turkey has carried out successive ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from parts of Syria’s northern border.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long sought to establish a “safe zone” 30 kilometres (20 miles) deep along the frontier.
– Islamic State group –
IS militants proclaimed a “caliphate” in June 2014 across swathes of Syria and Iraq, installing a reign of terror.
It was defeated in Syria in 2019 but its remnants continue to wage deadly attacks, particularly from desert hideouts.
Its fighters are particularly active in the vast Syrian desert, launching attacks against the SDF and the army.
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