Regime Bombardment Kills 11 in Syria's Idlib
[AnNahar] Syrian regime bombardment killed at least 11 people including nine civilians Tuesday in the northwestern region of Idlib where government and rebel backers agreed a "demilitarized zone," a monitor said.
Idlib, the last major part of Syria still outside the control of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, has been hit by sporadic government shelling for weeks despite the deal between pro-Assad Russia and rebel backer Turkey.
Tuesday's bombing of Maaret al-Numan came as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
, an alliance led by Syria's former al-Qaida affiliate, gained full control of the town, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor."Eleven people -- including nine civilians, two of them children -- were killed by artillery and missile fire" from government forces, said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.
"This was the first government bombing of Maaret al-Numan... since the Russia-Turkey accord" was signed on September 17, he added.
The deal was intended to spare Idlib and its three million inhabitants from a potentially devastating government offensive near the Turkish border.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham sealed its grip on Idlib on January 10, when it reached a ceasefire deal with the remnants of a rival alliance following days of deadly fighting.
The deal allowed an administrative body created by the jihadists, the "Salvation Government", to extend its grip over most of Idlib province and parts of neighboring provinces of Aleppo and Hama.
Monday's implementation of that plan raised tensions between HTS and rebel groups, which left the town as a result, said the Observatory.
Syria's complex war has killed at least 360,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Activists: Suicide blast targets al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria
[IsraelTimes] Syrian opposition activists say a woman has blown herself up, killing two people, outside an administration office for an al-Qaeda-linked group in the northern city of Idlib.
The Local Coordination Committees say today’s blast outside the offices linked to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham also wounded others. The attack comes weeks after the al-Qaeda-linked group captured wide parts of northern Syria in battles with
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
-backed opposition fighters.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another group monitoring the civil war, says the bomber exchanged fire with guards before blowing herself up.
Idlib, in northwestern Syria, is the last stronghold of opposition groups fighting President Bashar Assad’s government. The al-Qaeda-linked HTS is a dominant force in the area.
Al-Qaida's advance in northern Syria threatens fragile truce
BEIRUT (AP) ‐ It only took a few days for al-Qaida-linked militants to seize more than two dozen towns and villages in northern Syria from rival insurgents earlier this month, expanding and cementing their control over an area the size of neighboring Lebanon.
The advance by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or the Levant Liberation Committee, was the most serious blow yet to a September cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey that averted a major government offensive in Idlib province, the last main stronghold of the Syrian opposition.
It highlighted the growing threat posed by al-Qaida at a time when its rival, the Islamic State group, is on the verge of defeat and the U.S. is preparing to withdraw its 2,000 troops from Syria. Although HTS has formally severed ties with al-Qaida, experts say it is still closely linked to the global network founded by Osama bin Laden and could use its base in Syria to launch attacks in the West.
Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics, says there is a "real danger" that the group’s advance "will not only worsen the humanitarian crisis for the 3 million inhabitants there, but also give (President Bashar) Assad and his allies the justification to assault the province."