BEIRUT — Fighter jets unleashed sonic booms and helicopter gunships strafed rebels as they pressed their fight Tuesday into new neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. Farther south, ground troops combed Damascus after the nearly complete rout of the largest rebel assault yet on the capital.
After a series of setbacks, President Bashar Assad’s forces are solidifying their grip on Aleppo and Damascus, knowing that their fall would almost certainly spell the regime’s end.
The regime appears to be regaining momentum after a series of setbacks that put it on the defensive. But while its forces easily outgun the rebels in direct confrontations, the rebellion has spread them thin — pointing to a drawn-out civil war.
On Tuesday, the government appeared to have largely retaken the capital. Activists reported shelling and sporadic clashes in and around the city, but acknowledged that most fighters had withdrawn.
“They had to withdraw because they lacked ammunition and organization, because the regime was stronger and because they didn’t want to hurt civilians,” Damascus activist Mohammed Saeed said via Skype.
Also Tuesday, a top military commander and close friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad confirmed his defection from the regime.
Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, son of a former defense minister, said in a video broadcast on Al-Arabiya TV that Syrians must work together to build a new country.
“I speak to you not as an official, but as a son of Syria, as a son of the Syrian Arab army that has rejected the criminal program if this corrupt regime,” Tlass said, dressed in a light blue shirt with an open collar, his gray hair tussled.
“Our duty today as Syrians is to unify for one goal, and that is to make our country free and democratic,” he said.
It was his first public appearance since he left Syria earlier this month. French officials later confirmed that he was in France.
