Syria live tracker: Maps and charts

On November 27, groups opposing the government of President Bashar al-Assad, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, launched a surprise offensive that captured large parts of Aleppo, the country’s second largest city. In the week after, in lightening speed, Syrian opposition forces have moved to capture Hama, and Syrian opposition forces say they have captured Homs. Earlier, two officials said the forces captured central prison, adding that hundreds of inmates were freed.
The opposition forces’ rapid gains are the most significant since 2016 and have thrust Syria’s various factions back into the spotlight.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), an independent organisation that has documented human rights violations in Syria since 2011, at least 157 civilians, including at least 39 children and 15 women, were killed in Syria between November 27 and December 2.
The latest violence marked the first major attack against al-Assad’s forces in the region since the March 2020 Idlib ceasefire, brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Over the past four years, Syrian government forces and Russians have repeatedly bombed northwest regime-held areas, killing hundreds.
The map below shows the territorial control of various groups as of December 7, 21:45 GMT. Syrian opposition groups say they have started to surround the government-held capital Damascus as HTS chief says the government’s collapse ‘is in sight’.

Syrian opposition forces say they have captured Homs. Earlier, two officials said the forces captured central prison, adding that hundreds of inmates were freed.
 
Four main groups are competing for control on the ground in Syria. They are:
As the struggle against al-Assad’s government ground on in Syria, fighters formed and re-formed alliances according to the realities on the ground.
In this latest operation, many fighting groups are represented, clustered into alliances of varying sizes.
The two largest groupings are Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the National Front for Liberation, each of which comprises a number of smaller groups.
All of the groups have agreed to fight under the Military Operations Command, which is the newest iteration of the Fateh al-Mubin operations command centre that has been operating in the area for the past years.