Thousands of Syrian insurgents have taken over most of Aleppo, establishing positions in the country’s largest city and controlling its airport before expanding their shock offensive to a nearby province.

Assad, the Syrian dictator, to retake Aleppo after part of the city fell to insurgents in 2012. Less than four days is how long it took him to lose it. On November 27th rebels launched a surprise offensive in north-west Syria.

The British-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said that more than 300 people had been killed since the start of the offensive launched by militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions on Wednesday in which dozens of villages have been seized.