Amateur footage showed several dozen participants climbing on cars and monuments, while hoisting portraits of Syrian President Bashar Assad, as a larger crowd observed without joining in.

Government-allied units relieved the city, which continues to be under siege from Turkish and anti-Assad forces, at the beginning of the week.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who ordered the incursion into Syria, known as Operation Olive Branch, last month, warned that the incoming militias would “pay a heavy price.”