Siege of Nubl and Al-Zahraa

The Siege of Nubl and Al-Zahraa during the Syrian Civil War was launched by rebels to capture the last two government-held towns north of Aleppo after they had seized most of the northern countryside in July 2012.

Background
Fighting in the Aleppo Governorate began on 10 February 2012. Over the next five months, major clashes left large parts of the rural countryside under rebel control, while the provincial capital, Aleppo city, remained firmly under government control. On 19 July 2012, rebel forces stormed the city and the battle for Aleppo began, which reached a stalemate by September that dragged on over the following years, with the city divided between the two opposing forces.

The siege
Nubl and al-Zahraa were placed under siege by the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) starting in July 2012. Movement out of Nubl was severely curtailed and relied on goods being airlifted by the Syrian Army. Although relations between the inhabitants of Nubl and the surrounding villages were normally friendly, during the ongoing Syrian civil war, anti-government supporters from nearby Sunni villages claimed that Nubl and al-Zahraa hosted pro-government militias that launched attacks against opposition supporters. There were numerous tit-for-tat kidnappings between Nubl and pro-opposition villages in the vicinity. After months of rebel siege and continuous reciprocal kidnappings, popular committees in the two towns agreed to begin negotiations with Sunni rebels on 27 March 2013. The agreement to negotiate was organised by Kurdish parties from the neighbouring Kurd Dagh region, controlled by Kurdish separatists of the PYD. The talks were to be brokered by Kurds, and several kidnapped individuals had been freed on both sides.

In mid-2013, 125 Hezbollah fighters were sent via helicopters to reinforce the government defenses.

In February 2014, the Al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front rebel group and other Islamist groups captured the al-Ma’amel industrial area in the south of Al-Zahraa.

On 23 November 2014, the al-Nusra Front, along with other Islamist factions, started a three-front assault on the two towns and seized the industrial area southeast of al-Zahraa. They also advanced into the eastern outskirts of Nubl, which they targeted with dozens of mortar shells and dozens of hell cannon shells, after capturing buildings that are part of the first government line of defense. Beside the regular government troops, the towns were defended by its villagers. By the next day, both areas were recaptured by government forces. Between eight and 43 rebels were killed during the two-day offensive.

On 8 January 2015, a new rebel offensive, led by the al-Nusra Front, was launched against Nubl and Al-Zahraa. The first attack wave succeeded in breaking the first defensive line in both East Nubl and South Al-Zahraa in the factory area and lasted during the night. The attack was repelled by NDF and Hezbollah troops leading to the death of 14 rebels and 11 pro-government fighters. The rebels also lost four tanks, three of which were seized. Before being forced to retreat from the eastern part of Nubl, the rebels managed to capture the town's first and second roundabouts. During the fighting, a series of air raids reportedly destroyed rebel reinforcement convoys coming from Al-Maayer. The next day, a second attack was also repelled. By 14 January, the military secured Nubl and claimed that al-Nusra suffered 250 dead during the offensive.

In fighting in February, eighteen members of the Iraqi Shiite militant group Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba were reportedly killed while defending Nubl and Al-Zahraa.

On 17 April, the NDF and Hezbollah recaptured the al-Ma’amel industrial area and by 19 April, government sources reported 44 rebels and 12 soldiers were killed.