Reijnders shines through the fog at San Siro as Milan beats Empoli

MILAN (AP) — Tijjani Reijnders scored twice and helped AC Milan get back to winning ways in Serie A by 3-0 against visiting Empoli on Saturday.

The Netherlands midfielder netted either side of halftime at a foggy San Siro after Álvaro Morata opened the scoring.

Milan remained seventh, six points behind Atalanta, Inter Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio — who are all locked on 28 points — and seven below league leader Napoli.

Empoli was 10th but only five points above the relegation zone.

In its last home match, Milan was heavily jeered by its fans after drawing with Juventus 0-0.

The Rossoneri took the lead in the 19th minute. Rafael Leão’s shot was blocked by Empoli defender Ardian Ismajli but ricocheted into the path of Morata on the left of the area and he volleyed into the bottom near corner.

Milan doubled its tally on the stroke of halftime when a cross was flicked on by Christian Pulisic and fell to Reijnders, who smashed it into the bottom left corner on the half volley.

Empoli started the second half the stronger and almost pulled one back but Youssef Maleh’s effort cannoned off the crossbar.

Reijnders' second effectively sealed the result in the 69th. He latched onto a Youssouf Fofana through ball in midfield, raced forward, and fired past Empoli goalkeeper Devis Vásquez, who was on loan from Milan.

Como and Monza remain mired in the relegation zone after their hard-fought derby finished 1-1.

Como inched level on points with 17th-placed Genoa, with Monza a point further back.

Yannik Engelhardt headed Como in front in the 36th and Gianluca Caprari levelled from the spot early in the second half after Nico Paz was penalised for handball.

Venezia stayed bottom after a fourth straight defeat, this time 3-0 at Bologna. Dan Ndoye scored twice for Bologna, including a penalty, and Riccardo Orsolini also converted a spot kick.

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Bologna's Dan Ndoye celebrates after scoring the 1-0 goal for his team during the Serie A soccer match between Bologna and Venezia at Renato Dall'Ara Stadium in Bologna, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (Massimo Paolone/LaPresse via AP)

AC Monza's Gianluca Caprari celebrates scoring during the Serie A soccer match between Como and Monza at the Giuseppe Sinigaglia stadium in Como, Italy, Saturday Nov. 30, 2024. (Antonio Saia/LaPresse via AP)

Como 1907's Yannik Engelhardt celebrates scoring during the Serie A soccer match between Como and Monza at the Giuseppe Sinigaglia stadium in Como, Italy, Saturday Nov. 30, 2024. (Antonio Saia/LaPresse via AP)

AC Milan's head coach Paulo Fonseca gives instructions during the Italian Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Empoli, at the Milan San Siro stadium, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A thick fog shrouds the pitch during the Italian Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Empoli, at the Milan San Siro stadium, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

AC Milan's Alvaro Morata scores his side's opening goal during the Italian Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Empoli, at the Milan San Siro stadium, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

AC Milan's Alvaro Morata, left, celebrates with his teammate Youssouf Fofana after scoring his side's opening goal during the Italian Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Empoli, at the Milan San Siro stadium, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

AC Milan's Tijjani Reijnders celebrates scoring his side's second goal during the Italian Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Empoli, at the Milan San Siro stadium, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

AC Milan's Tijjani Reijnders celebrates with Alvaro Morata, top left, and Youssouf Fofana after scoring his side's third goal during the Italian Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Empoli, at the Milan San Siro stadium, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

AC Milan's Tijjani Reijnders celebrates scoring his side's third goal during the Italian Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Empoli, at the Milan San Siro stadium, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

BEIRUT (AP) — Thousands of Syrian insurgents took over most of Aleppo on Saturday, establishing positions in the country's largest city and controlling its airport before expanding their shock offensive to a nearby province. They faced little to no resistance from government troops, according to fighters and activists.

A war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the insurgents led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham seized control of Aleppo International airport, the first international airport to be controlled by insurgents. The fighters claimed they seized the airport and posted pictures from there.

Thousands of fighters also moved on, facing almost no opposition from government forces, to seize towns and villages in northern Hama, a province where they had a presence before being expelled by government troops in 2016. They claimed Saturday evening to have entered the city of Hama.

The swift and surprise offensive is a huge embarrassment for Syria's President Bashar Assad and raises questions about his armed forces' preparedness. The insurgent offensive launched from their stronghold in the country's northwest appeared to have been planned for years. It also comes at a time when Assad's allies were preoccupied with their own conflicts.

In his first public comments since the start of the offensive, released by the state news agency Saturday evening, Assad said Syria will continue to "defend its stability and territorial integrity against terrorists and their supporters.” He added that Syria is able to defeat them no matter how much their attacks intensify.

Turkey, a main backer of Syrian opposition groups, said its diplomatic efforts had failed to stop government attacks on opposition-held areas in recent weeks, which were in violation of a de-escalation agreement sponsored by Russia, Iran and Ankara. Turkish security officials said a limited offensive by the rebels was planned to stop government attacks and allow civilians to return, but the offensive expanded as Syrian government forces began to retreat from their positions.

The insurgents, led by the Salafi jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and including Turkey-backed fighters, launched their shock offensive on Wednesday. They first staged a two-pronged attack in Aleppo and the Idlib countryside, entering Aleppo two days later and securing a strategic town that lies on the highway that links Syria's largest city to the capital and the coast.

By Saturday evening, they seized at least four towns in the central Hama province and claimed to have entered the provincial capital. The insurgents staged an attempt to reclaim areas they controlled in Hama in 2017 but failed.

Syria’s armed forces said in a statement Saturday that to absorb the large attack on Aleppo and save lives, it redeployed troops and equipment and was preparing a counterattack. The statement acknowledged that insurgents entered large parts of the city but said they have not established bases or checkpoints. Later on Saturday, the armed forces sought to dispel what it said were lies in reference to reports about its forces retreating or defecting, saying the general command was carrying out its duties in “combatting terrorist organizations.”

The return of the insurgents to Aleppo was their first since 2016, following a grueling military campaign in which Assad's forces were backed by Russia, Iran and its allied groups.

The 2016 battle for Aleppo was a turning point in the war between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters after 2011 protests against Assad’s rule turned into an all-out war. After appearing to be losing control of the country to the rebels, the Aleppo battle secured Assad’s hold on strategic areas of Syria, with opposition factions and their foreign backers controlling areas on the periphery.

The lightning offensive threatened to reignite the country's civil war, which had been largely in a stalemate for years.

Late on Friday, witnesses said two airstrikes hit the edge of Aleppo city, targeting insurgent reinforcements and falling near residential areas. The Observatory said 20 fighters were killed.

Insurgents were filmed outside police headquarters, in the city center, and outside the Aleppo citadel, the medieval palace in the old city center, and one of the largest in the world. They tore down posters of Assad, stepping on some and burning others.

The push into Aleppo followed weeks of simmering low-level violence, including government attacks on opposition-held areas.

The offensive came as Iran-linked groups, primarily Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has backed Syrian government forces since 2015, have been preoccupied with their own battles at home. A ceasefire in Hezbollah’s two-month war with Israel took effect Wednesday, the same day that Syrian opposition factions announced their offensive. Israel has also escalated its attacks against Hezbollah and Iran-linked targets in Syria during the last 70 days.

Speaking from the heart of the city in Saadallah Aljabri square, opposition fighter Mohammad Al Abdo said it was his first time back in Aleppo in 13 years, when his older brother was killed at the start of the war.

“God willing, the rest of Aleppo province will be liberated" from government forces, he said.

There was light traffic in the city center on Saturday. Opposition fighters fired in the air in celebration but there was no sign of clashes or government troops present.

Journalists in the city filmed soldiers captured by the insurgents and the bodies of others killed in battle.

Abdulkafi Alhamdo, a teacher who fled Aleppo in 2016 and returned Friday night after hearing the insurgents were inside, described “mixed feelings of pain, sadness and old memories."

“As I entered Aleppo, I kept telling myself this is impossible. How did this happen?”

Alhamdo said he strolled through the city at night visiting the Aleppo citadel, where the insurgents raised their flags, a major square and the university of Aleppo, as well as the last spot he was in before he was forced to leave for the countryside.

“I walked in (the empty) streets of Aleppo, shouting, ‘People, people of Aleppo. We are your sons,’” he told The Associated Press in a series of messages.

Aleppo residents reported hearing clashes and gunfire but most stayed indoors. Some fled the fighting.

Schools and government offices were closed Saturday as most people stayed indoors, according to Sham FM radio, a pro-government station. Bakeries were open. Witnesses said the insurgents deployed security forces around the city to prevent any acts of violence or looting.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday Aleppo's two key public hospitals were reportedly full of patients while many private facilities closed.

In social media posts, the insurgents were pictured outside of the citadel, the medieval palace in the old city center, and one of the largest in the world. In cellphone videos, they recorded themselves having conversations with residents they visited at home, seeking to reassure them they will cause no harm.

The Syrian Kurdish-led administration in the country's east said nearly 3,000 people, most of them students, had arrived in their region after fleeing the fighting in Aleppo, which has a sizeable Kurdish population.

State media reported that a number of “terrorists," including sleeper cells, infiltrated parts of the city. Government troops chased them and arrested a number who posed for pictures near city landmarks, they said.

On a state TV morning show Saturday, commentators said army reinforcements and Russia’s assistance would repel the “terrorist groups,” blaming Turkey for supporting the insurgents’ push into Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

Russia’s state news agency Tass quoted Oleg Ignasyuk, a Russian Defense Ministry official coordinating in Syria, as saying that Russian warplanes targeted and killed 200 militants who had launched the offensive in the northwest on Friday. It provided no further details.

Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.

Opposition fighters step on a picture of Syrian President Bashar Assad in Aleppo, Syria, late Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

An opposition fighter poses with an opposition flag in front of a police station in Aleppo, Syria, late Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Opposition fighters hold up their guns as they pose for photos under a billboard depicting Syrian President Bashar Assad in Aleppo, Syria, late Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Opposition fighters ride along the streets of Aleppo, Syria, Saturday Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Opposition fighters ride along the streets of Aleppo, Syria, Saturday Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Syrian opposition fighters patrol along the streets of Aleppo, Syria, Saturday Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Syrian opposition fighters warm themselves by a fire in the streets of Aleppo, late Friday Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Syrian opposition fighters burn government Syrian flags for the cameras next to Aleppo's old city, Saturday Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A Syrian opposition fighter shoots in the air in downtown Aleppo, Syria, Saturday Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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

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

Opposition forces take control of areas outside Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Opposition forces take control of areas outside Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Opposition forces take control of areas outside Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Opposition forces take control of areas outside Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)