Syria's complex civil war entered a new phase this week as Islamic rebels consolidated their control over Aleppo, while US-backed Kurdish forces launched a separate offensive against President Bashar al-Assad's army and Iranian-backed groups in the country's eastern regions, significantly altering the conflict's dynamics.

The last 24 hours have witnessed intense exchanges of fire between the Syrian Democratic Forces (a Kurdish-led coalition backed by the United States) and Assad's forces alongside pro-Iranian armed groups. Success by the Kurdish-led coalition in this arena could prove advantageous for Israel by disrupting Iranian arms supply networks.

Foreign reports indicate that the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Deir ez-Zor Military Council have initiated "Operation Return," targeting a series of villages currently held by Assad's forces and pro-Iranian armed groups. Their declared purpose is to enable the return of residents who were previously forced from these villages.

The Syrian News Agency, a media outlet aligned with the Assad government, reported that its military and "auxiliary forces" are responding to an offensive in eastern Deir ez-Zor. The report characterized the Syrian Democratic Forces as "terrorists belonging to a separatist militia."

In western Syria, the Islamic rebels' command center announced control over more than 15 villages and towns in northwestern Hama province, with forces advancing toward Hama city. This campaign, spearheaded by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, carries the name "Deterrence of Aggression." The northern province of Idlib has also fallen entirely under their control.

Concurrently, the Syrian National Army, comprising various Islamic armed groups, some receiving Turkish support, has opened another front against the Syrian Democratic Forces. These groups are targeting Kurdish autonomous regions in northern Syria through an operation dubbed "Dawn of Freedom," designed to diminish Syrian Democratic Forces' influence. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government in Turkey maintains a strategic interest in reducing Kurdish power and is acting in pursuit of this objective.

Recent diplomatic engagement between Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers concluded with both sides acknowledging their divergent views on Syrian developments. At a joint press conference, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated, "it's natural we have differences."

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A ministry statement, published on state media, did not name the firm involved in the deal with the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance that seized swathes of north and east Syria from the Islamic State with US help.

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The statement did not give details on the agreement. There was no immediate response from SDF officials to a Reuters' request for comment. There was no immediate comment from US officials.

Damascus "condemns in the strongest terms the agreement signed between al-Qasd militia (SDF) and an American oil company to steal Syria's oil under the sponsorship and support of the American administration," the statement said.

"This agreement is null and void and has no legal basis," it said, adding that it was a violation of Syrian sovereignty.

Syria produced around 380,000 barrels of oil per day before a civil war erupted following a crackdown on protests in 2011, with Iran and Russia backing President Bashar al-Assad's government and the United States supporting the opposition.

Damascus lost control of most oil-producing fields in a stretch east of the Euphrates River in Deir al-Zor. Western sanctions have also hit the energy industry.

US President Donald Trump has said that despite a military pullback from northeast Syria, a small number of American forces would remain "where they have oil." The Pentagon said late last year that oilfield revenues would go to the SDF.

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The fierce fighting killed more than 50 fighters on both sides, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It also underscored that Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces will face a long, hard fight as they try to chip away at the last rebel-held territory.

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The counterattacks began early in the morning and government forces called in Syria's air force to repel them, the Observatory said. It said that 29 Syrian troops and pro-government gunmen were killed, as well as 23 insurgents.

The insurgents captured two villages, Salloumieh and Abu Omar, and pushed into the nearby village of Sham al-Hawa, it said.

The Ibaa media outlet of the al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group said its fighters were attacking Syrian positions east of Khan Sheikhoun, a major town that was held by rebels until they lost it last week.

Pro-government activists said on social media that Syrian troops and pro-government gunmen are repelling the attack.

Syrian government forces captured wide areas from insurgents over the past weeks in an offensive that began on April 30. The areas taken include all rebel-held parts of Hama province as well as villages on the southern edge of Idlib, the last remaining rebel stronghold in Syria.

Tuesday's clashes came after Syrian warplanes pounded the rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan and nearby villages over the past two days – their likely next target for a takeover.

Maaret al-Numan, like Khan Sheikhoun, sits on the highway linking Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest. Government forces are trying to eventually open that highway.

Taher al-Omar, a citizen journalist with the al-Qaida-linked militants, wrote on social media that they have carried out several suicide attacks so far.

The months of fighting have displaced more than half a million civilians toward northern parts of Idlib, already home to some 3 million people, according to UN humanitarian officials.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, a bomb exploded on a minibus, killing two people and wounding nine near the town of Azaz. The town is controlled by Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters, according to pro-government media and the Azaz media center, an activist collective.

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A Saudi-led alliance of Sunni Arab states has fractured after more than four years fighting on behalf of an ousted Yemeni government against the Iran-aligned, Shiite-led Houthi movement that controls the capital and most populous areas.

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In recent days, the UAE-armed separatists have cast off an alliance with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government and seized much of Aden, which had been his main base.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia's main military ally on the ground for most of the war, has drawn down forces since June.

Saudi Arabia and UAE rulers met in Mecca on Monday, in an apparent effort to stop further damage to their alliance that would boost their common enemy, the Houthis.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz and his son, the kingdom's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, discussed the situation with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, state-run Saudi TV said.

The Saudi king and crown prince both met Hadi on Sunday, also in Mecca.

The separatist leader, Southern Transitional Council president Aidarous al-Zubaidi, said that his group still supports the coalition against the Houthis and would attend a proposed emergency summit in Saudi Arabia.

But he did not commit to withdrawing his forces from government buildings they seized on Saturday after clashes that killed 40 people, including civilians.

Riyadh made clear that it still backs the government led by Hadi, who has mainly lived in Saudi Arabia since fleeing Yemen's capital in 2014.

The coalition said it hit a separatist area on Sunday and threatened more attacks if the southerners did not leave.

Residents said that fighting has ended since the separatists seized government military bases and surrounded the nearly empty presidential palace in Aden on Saturday.

"It is quiet now but people are still worried. We don't know where matters are heading," Aden resident Adel Mohammed told Reuters on Monday. He said power and water supplies had been restored but could be disrupted again.

Local media quoted an official at Aden's airport as saying that flights had resumed on Sunday.

Zubaidi said the separatists, who want an independent South Yemen, had no choice but to seize Aden following a deadly Houthi missile strike on southern forces earlier this month.

The separatists accuse a party allied to Hadi of being complicit in that strike, which it denies.

"We were left with two options: defend ourselves or surrender to the eradication of our just cause and souls," Zubaidi said in a statement from Aden late on Sunday.

The rift in the coalition complicates UN efforts to implement a stalled peace deal in the main port city of Hodeidah to pave the way for broader talks to end the war.

The southern separatists and UAE forces played a major role on the ground in a coalition attempt to seize Hodeidah and cut off supply lines to Houthi-held areas.

The four-and-a-half-year-old war has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.

The UAE has trained thousands of southern fighters who answer to Zubaidi, a militia leader who emerged from relative obscurity in 2015 after helping purge the Houthis from Aden.

Violence has escalated in other parts of Yemen after the Houthis stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities.

The coalition said it attacked Houthi targets in northern Hajjah province on Sunday that the movement's al-Masirah TV said killed 11 civilians. The alliance said it was investigating civilian deaths in the airstrikes.

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Geir Pedersen spoke with reporters in the Syrian capital of Damascus shortly after arriving from neighboring Beirut. He is scheduled to hold meetings with Syrian government officials on Wednesday.

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"I'm looking forward to have what I believe are constructive discussions on how to move the political process forward," Pedersen said, adding he would also discuss ways to end the fighting in northwestern Idlib province.

Syria is locked in a devastating civil war pitting President Bashar Assad's forces against rebels seeking to topple him. Fighting has raged in and around Idlib as government troops backed by Russia seek to make advances on the ground against insurgents who control the province.

Pedersen's arrival also coincided with a new rebel offensive in the mountains of the coastal Latakia province, with opposition activists saying rebels overran a series of Syrian army positions.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes are underway in several locations in the Turkman Mountains. It said the fighting killed 35 people on both sides in the opening hours. There was no immediate confirmation or government comment.

Pedersen's visit to Syria follows meetings he held with Russian officials in Moscow on Friday, in which he urged Russia to help stabilize the violence in Idlib and support drafting the country's new constitution. Following his meetings there, he said, "We now seem to be closer to establishing a constitutional committee."

The UN hopes that convening the constitutional committee would be the first step toward a new constitution and new elections.

However, Syrian officials have said they will not accept outside dictates when it comes to Syria's constitution and have suggested Assad might even run for re-election.

The more than yearlong effort to form a 150-member constitutional committee has been dogged by objections from Syria's government over the 50-member list representing experts, independents, tribal leaders and women. There is already agreement on 50-member lists from the government and the opposition.

Pedersen has also called for confidence-building measures between the government and the opposition such as prisoner releases.

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Russian jets joined the Syrian army on April 26 in the biggest offensive against parts of rebel-held Idlib province and adjoining northern Hama provinces in the biggest escalation in the war between Syrian President Bashar Assad and his enemies since last summer.

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The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), which monitors casualties and briefs various UN agencies, said the 544 civilians killed in the hundreds of attacks carried out by Russian jets and the Syrian army include 130 children. Another 2,117 people have been wounded.

"The Russian military and its Syrian ally are deliberately targeting civilians with a record number of medical facilities bombed," Fadel Abdul Ghany, chairman of SNHR, told Reuters.

Russia and its Syrian army ally deny their jets hit indiscriminately civilian areas with cluster munitions and incendiary weapons, which residents in opposition areas say are meant to paralyze every-day life.

Moscow says its forces and the Syrian army are fending off terror attacks by al-Qaida operatives whom they say hit populated, government-held areas, and it accuses rebels of wrecking a ceasefire deal agreed on last year between Turkey and Russia.

Last month US-based Human Rights Watch said the Russian-Syrian joint military operation had used cluster munitions and incendiary weapons in the attacks along with large air-dropped explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated civilian areas, based on reports by first responders and witnesses.

Residents and rescuers say the two-month-old campaign has left dozens of villages and towns in ruins. According to the UN, at least 300,000 people have been forced to leave their homes for the safety of areas closer to the border with Turkey.

"Whole villages and towns have been emptied," said Idlib-based Civil Defense spokesman Ahmad al Sheikho, saying it was the most destructive campaign against Idlib province since it completely fell to the opposition in the middle of 2015.

On Friday, 15 people, including children, were killed in the village of Mhambil in western Idlib province after Syrian army helicopters dropped barrel bombs on a civilian quarter, the civil defense group and witnesses said.

The heads of 11 major global humanitarian organizations warned at the end of last month that Idlib stood at the brink of disaster, with 3 million civilian lives at risk, including 1 million children.

"Too many have died already" and "even wars have laws" they declared, in the face of multiple attacks by government forces and their allies on hospitals, schools, and markets," the UN-endorsed statement said.

Last Thursday, an airstrike on Kafr Nabl hospital made it the 30th facility to be bombed during the campaign, leaving hundreds of thousands with no medical access, according to aid groups.

"To have these medical facilities bombed and put out of service in less than two months is no accident. Let's call this by what it is, a war crime," Dr. Khaula Sawah, vice president of the US-based Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, which provides aid in the northwest, said in a statement.

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The coalition, which has been fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, said it would mount a "firm" response.

A coalition statement, carried on Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV, said a projectile hit the arrivals hall at Abha International Airport causing substantial damage. Three women and two children were among the wounded, who were of Saudi, Yemeni and Indian nationalities, it said.

The Houthi-run Masirah TV earlier said the Houthi group had launched a cruise missile attack on Abha airport, which is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the border with Yemen and serves domestic and regional routes.

"Targeting Abha airport proves that the Houthis have obtained advanced weapons from Iran," the coalition's statement said, saying the attack could amount to a war crime.

The attack follows an armed drone strike last month on two oil-pumping stations in the kingdom that were claimed by the Houthis. Saudi Arabia accused Iran of ordering the attack, a charge that Tehran denies.

A Houthi military spokesman on Tuesday threatened that the group, which has been battling the Saudi military alliance in Yemen for four years, would target every airport in Saudi Arabia and that the coming days would reveal "big surprises."

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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said on Monday that the troops had reached the village of Qassaibyeh.

The pro-government Syrian Central Military Media also confirmed that Syrian troops have captured the village.

Human rights and war monitor groups say the government campaign to retake Idlib over the past month, supported by airstrikes, has killed dozens of civilians. The area is overcrowded with refugees and displaced persons from the war.

The province is the last area standing in Syrian President Bashar Assad's way as he seeks a final victory against the armed opposition after eight years of civil war.

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The first responders known as White Helmets said Monday that rescue workers were still searching for survivors under the rubble after the airstrikes hit a crowded residential street in the town of Ariha. They said five women and a child were killed.

The airstrikes hit the town amid intense government bombardment in Idlib province and its environs.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says there were more than 100 air raids and as many as 93 barrel bombs dropped Monday on the southern section of the rebel stronghold.

A top opposition official warned on Monday that Russian-backed Syrian government forces would be able to advance all the way to the Turkish border if they pierce rebel defenses in the northwest, a top opposition official said, urging Turkey to do more to shield the area from a major attack.

The month-long onslaught is the most serious escalation of the war between President Bashar al-Assad and his enemies since last summer. Syrian government air strikes and barrel bombing backed by Russian air power have uprooted around 250,000 people in the territory, the last significant rebel stronghold.

Fawaz Hilal, head of the "Salvation Government" that runs Idlib province, expressed confidence that opposition fighters gathered in the Idlib region from all over Syria would be able resist the onslaught.

"This ferocious attack is a bone-breaking battle. If the regime is able to break our defensive lines in northern Hama and southern Idlib it will not stop until it reaches the borders," Hilal told Reuters in an interview.

His government, backed by the powerful Tahrir al-Sham jihadist group, had called on its employees to help shoulder the "military burden" through building sandbag defences, manning front lines, financial support or any other help.

"We are all concerned with repelling this attack," he said.

The bombardment has killed 229 civilians and injured 727 since April 28, according to The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM), a U.S.-based medical NGO.

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Fighting erupted in Idlib late last month, effectively shattering a cease-fire negotiated by Russia and Turkey that had been in place since September. Russia has firmly backed Syrian President Bashar Assad's government in the eight-year civil war, while Turkey has supported the opposition.

In a brief statement on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Reconciliation of the Warring Sides in Syria said government forces had ceased fire as of midnight. It described the move as unilateral but did not give details.

The pro-government Syrian Central Military Media said government forces responded to shelling by militants Sunday on the edge of Idlib. It gave no further details.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, reported an airstrike on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, saying it inflicted casualties.

The opposition's Syrian Civil Defense also reported shelling near the town of Jisr al-Shughur without reporting any casualties.

Syrian government forces intensified their attacks as of April 30 on Idlib. The area is home to some 3 million people, many of whom are internally displaced. The last round of violence also displaced some 180,000 in rebel-held areas.

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