JERUSALEM – Extremist Syrian Islamist forces have seized control of large swaths of Aleppo, the war-torn country’s second-largest city, raising significant new questions for the U.S. government about its policies in the highly unstable Syrian Arab Republic.

“I think it is worrying if some elements of the anti-Assad forces get their hands on sensitive sites in Syria. There have been reports that they have seized the Syrian Science and Research Center, which houses Assad’s chemical weapons program, and other military assets,” Jason Brodsky, policy director for United Against Nuclear Iran, told Fox News Digital.

He continued: “Given the background of some of these groups previously linked to al-Qaeda, this raises serious questions and could have implications for Israel’s national security.”

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government reportedly met on Friday evening to discuss the latest news from Syria.

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Vehicles burn after an airstrike on opposition fighters in Aleppo, Syria, late Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Former President Barack Obama made a widely criticized deal with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in 2013 to end his chemical weapons program. U.S. officials later said that Assad likely retained some of his chemical weapons apparatus. Assad has repeatedly used poison gas against his people to quell the democratic uprising against his regime in 2011.

Around 900 American soldiers are currently deployed in Syria to defeat the Islamic State. The US military presence in Syria is also helping to blunt the Iranian regime’s attempts to take over parts of Syria, according to Middle East experts.

The capture of most of the city of Aleppo, which has a population of two million, is a devastating military defeat for Assad and his allies, the US-designated terrorist movement, Hezbollah, Russia and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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Still, Brodsky warned that Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a coalition of radical Islamist groups that secured victory in Aleppo, was also an extremely dangerous organization for the United States

“We must not forget that one of these groups, HTS, has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States. I think Israel’s denigration of Hezbollah has emboldened the anti-Assad forces as they smelled blood in the water in this attack on Aleppo.” It’s not just Hezbollah’s losses, but also IRGC’s (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) losses that put the structures of the Quds Force in Syria to the test.

A Syrian opposition fighter takes a photo of a comrade stepping on a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo early Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed) (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

“Let us not forget that in the last year alone, Israel twice beheaded the IRGC’s Quds Force Department 2000, which oversees operations in the Levant, not to mention other key commanders in the Syrian theater. “This is a loss of relationships, skills and networks that have put the IRGC at a disadvantage, especially when Hezbollah was under so much pressure,” he said.

The United States government has designated both the Iranian regime and the Syrian Arab Republic as state sponsors of terrorism.

Phillip Smyth, an expert on Iranian regime and Syria proxy groups who sits on the Atlantic Council, told Fox News Digital: “If you thought Assad was sending or had something elite and functional for the combat forces, remember that almost “Every successful offensive for the pro-Assad side since 2013 and 2015 has been executed by Iran and its proxies and/or Russia.”

Smyth said: “HTS is a group that emerged from al-Qaeda and has links to Türkiye. Their end goal is to create a Taliban-like society with a few tweaks.”

Anti-regime groups take control of some villages in the western countryside as clashes continue between Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the opposition armed group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), in Aleppo, Syria, November 27, 2024. (Kasim Rammah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

He said: “I doubt the US will be able to say we are happy with this. They attacked us on 9/11,” alluding to HTS’ al-Qaeda origins. However, Smyth pointed out that Assad’s attack was the other side of the same dangerous coin for US interests. Referring to Assad and HTS, he said: “I don’t think either is a good case. Assad was very anti-American. He has allowed Lebanese Hezbollah to metastasize and used Sunni jihadi groups.” Smith added that “Assad has allowed al-Qaeda to go to Iraq to kill Americans.

The US-allied group, a coalition of Kurdish forces called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), also has a presence in Aleppo. The SDF played a crucial role in defeating the Islamic State in Syria.

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Fighters on their motorcycles enter Rashidin district on the outskirts of Aleppo as smoke rises in the background during fighting on November 29, 2024, as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists and allied factions continue their offensive in Aleppo province against Government troops continue. (Photo by Bakr Alkasem/AFP via Getty Images)

Wladimir van Wilgenburg, an expert in Kurdish studies, discussed the SDF and the Kurdish force YPG (People’s Protection Units) with Fox News Digital. He said: “In the city of Aleppo there are two Kurdish-dominated neighborhoods under the control of the Kurdish-led SDF/YPG and a significant number of displaced people from Afrin (which is under Turkish control) in Til Rifaat in the north of Aleppo.” It is unlikely that the HTS will accept that the YPG controls the airport. For the first time, Russia also carried out airstrikes in Aleppo, killing several civilians and rebel fighters.

Van Wilgenburg, co-author of the book published in 2021 with Dr. Michael Knights on the SDF-US partnership against the Islamic State, continued: “The increasing influence of HTS also poses a threat to the YPG presence in northern Aleppo. In particular, the YPG/SDF withdrew from Nubl and Zahra without a fight returned after they invaded after the regime and Iranian-backed militias had previously taken control of these cities.

FILE – In this Feb. 25, 2019, file photo released by an official website of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right) greets Syrian President Bashar Assad in Tehran, Iran. On November 13, 1970, Hafez Assad, a young career Air Force officer, launched a bloodless coup. Fifty years later, his family still rules Syria. The country lies in the rubble of a decade of civil war that killed about half a million people, displaced half the population and virtually wiped out the economy. But Hafez’s son, Bashar al-Assad, has undisputed control over what’s left. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, File)

General Hossein Daghighi, adviser to the IRGC commander, said on Saturday, according to Iran International: “The enemy is unable to take effective action because the resistance networks have been systematically organized. Her attempts to interfere in Syria will result in her hand being decisively severed, leaving a mark on history that will not be forgotten.”

A destroyed Syrian Army tank stands in the village of Anjara on the western outskirts of Aleppo, Syria, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

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The Syrian regime military announced its “regrouping operation” in Aleppo. “The large number of terrorists and the diversity of battle fronts prompted our armed forces to conduct a redeployment operation with the aim of strengthening defense lines to absorb the attack, save the lives of civilians and soldiers and prepare for a counterattack,” he said Military.

According to the Syrian military, “dozens of men from our armed forces have been killed and others injured” as “terrorist organizations have been able to penetrate large parts of the neighborhoods of the city of Aleppo in the last few hours.”

Reuters reported that a State Department spokesman said the U.S. was monitoring the situation in Syria. Assad’s regime has slaughtered over 500,000 people in Syria since 2011. The United Nations has since stopped tracking the death toll there.