The US faces a new headache in the Middle East as Islamist rebels in Syria catch the Assad, Putin, and Iran regimes off guard.

The U.S. government is facing new questions about its policy in Syria as extremist Syrian Islamist forces have seized control over much of Aleppo, the second-largest city in the war-torn country.

If anti-Assad forces gain access to sensitive sites in Syria, it is a cause for concern. According to reports, they have seized the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center, which houses Assad's chemical weapons program and other military assets. Jason Brodsky, policy director for United Against Nuclear Iran, made this statement to Planet Chronicle Digital.

The continuation of these groups, previously linked to Al-Qaeda, raises serious questions and may impact Israeli national security.

On Friday night, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly discussed the latest news from Syria.

In 2013, former President Barack Obama reached a controversial agreement with Syrian leader Bashar Assad to dismantle his chemical weapons program. However, U.S. officials later admitted that Assad may have kept some of his chemical warfare capabilities. Assad has repeatedly used poison gas to suppress the democratic uprising against his regime that began in 2011.

The U.S. military is currently in Syria with around 900 soldiers, working to defeat the Islamic State and prevent Iran from absorbing parts of the country.

The stunning military defeat of Assad and his allies, including the U.S-designated terrorist movement Hezbollah, Russia, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the seizure of most of the two million-person populated city of Aleppo is a military defeat for them.

The victory of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group of radical Islamists, in Aleppo poses a threat to the U.S., as warned by Brodsky.

One of the groups designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. is HTS. The degradation of Hezbollah by Israel may have emboldened the anti-Assad forces, who saw an opportunity to attack Aleppo and smell blood in the water. The losses of both Hezbollah and the IRGC are testing the Quds Force's structures in Syria.

The IRGC Quds Force Department 2000, which oversees operations in the Levant, has been decapitated by Israel twice in the last year alone, resulting in a loss of relationships, skills, and networks that has put the IRGC at a disadvantage, especially when Hezbollah has been under strain.

Both Iran's government and the Syrian Arab Republic have been labeled as state-sponsors of terrorism by the United States.

According to Phillip Smyth, an expert on Iranian regime proxy groups and Syria, who is with the Atlantic Council, nearly every successful offensive for the pro-Assad side has been executed by Iran and Iran proxies, or Russia, since 2013 and 2015, respectively.

Smyth stated that HTS, which originated from Al-Qaeda and has ties to Turkey, aims to establish a Talibanesque society with slight modifications as their ultimate goal.

Smyth pointed out that Assad's actions are the other side of the same dangerous coin for U.S. interests. He stated that both Assad and HTS are not good cases for the U.S. Smith added that Assad has been very anti-American and has allowed Lebanese Hezbollah to metastasize, utilized Sunni jihad groups, and allowed Al-Qaeda to go to Iraq to kill Americans.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Kurdish forces, are present in Aleppo and played a critical role in defeating the Islamic State in Syria.

Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a Kurdish studies expert, spoke with Planet Chronicle Digital about the SDF and the Kurdish force YPG. He stated that Aleppo has two Kurdish-dominated neighborhoods controlled by the SDF/YPG and a large number of displaced people from Afrin, which is under Turkish control, living in Til Rifaat in northern Aleppo. It is unlikely that HTS will accept the YPG controlling the airport. Additionally, Russia has carried out airstrikes in Aleppo, resulting in the deaths of civilians and rebel fighters.

Van Wilgenburg, a co-author of the 2021 book with Dr. Michael Knights on the SDF-U.S. partnership against the Islamic State, stated that the increasing power of HTS poses a threat to the YPG's presence in northern Aleppo. Notably, the YPG/SDF withdrew from Nubl and Zahra without a fight, having moved in after regime and Iran-backed militias previously took control of those towns.

On Saturday, General Hossein Daghighi, advisor to the Commander of the IRGC, stated through Iran International that the enemy is unable to take any effective action against resistance networks that have been systematically organized. Any attempts to interfere in Syria will result in the enemy's hand being decisively severed, leaving a mark on history that will not be forgotten.

Syria's military announced a "redeployment operation" in Aleppo due to the presence of terrorists and multiple battlefronts. The operation aimed to strengthen defense lines, protect civilians and soldiers, and prepare for a counterattack, according to the military.

Over the past hours, terrorist organizations have entered large parts of neighborhoods in Aleppo city, resulting in the deaths and injuries of dozens of men from our armed forces.

Over 500,000 people have been killed in Syria since 2011, but the U.N. no longer tracks the death toll there.