The Observer - 25.08.2019

• The Observer
  30 25.08.19 World

22 July. “Omran [the couple’s third
child] was there in Maarat al-Numan
when the airstrike on the market hap-
pened,” says Dimashqi. “He rushed
over and shouted again and again for
his father, begging him to say he was
alive. But he wasn’t. The bombing is
incessant. It’s becoming exactly like
what we witnessed in Ghouta.”
Many civilians living in Idlib prov-
ince, like Dimashqi, are Syrians who
have never picked up a gun but are
sympathetic to the rebel cause. Their
lives have been affected by violence
again and again. A third of the pop-
ulation are children. And yet, accord-
ing to Damascus and its Russian

Syrian government forces have made
fresh military advances towards
President Bashar al-Assad ’s goal of
reclaiming “every inch” of the coun-
try in an offensive that has intensifi ed
fears of a humanitarian disaster in the
northern Idlib province.
Opposition fi ghters withdrew last
week from the key town of Khan
Sheikhoun , another strategic con-
cession to Assad and his Russian and
Iranian backers, who have torn up a
ceasefi re deal protecting the rebels’
last major pocket of territory.
As the country’s bloody civil war
grinds into its ninth year, Assad
is widely acknowledged to have
emerged triumphant.
But the fi ghting is far from over,
with the terms of victory and the
shape of Syria’s future still very much
in play on the battlefi eld.
Armed groups are dug in across
much of the north, including extrem-
ist opposition fi ghters in Idlib, and
beyond them foreign-backed fi ght-
ers including Turkish proxy militias
and US-backed Kurds along sections
of the border with Turkey and Iraq.
Caught in the middle of the fi ght-
ing, as brutal as it ever has been
during this conflict, are desperate
civilians. Around three million are
trapped in the opposition-held prov-
ince of Idlib.
The area is largely controlled by
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) , a former
al-Qaida affi liate that came to domi-
nate the opposition after infi ghting
and fragmentation destroyed more
moderate groups.
But the civilians gathered there
come from a much broader range of
backgrounds, many of them oppo-
sition supporters displaced multi-
ple times from areas that have since

fallen to Assad, including Aleppo and

the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.

Many have fallen under HTS control

without actively supporting them.

The latest crisis was set in motion

in April, when the Syrian government

offensive shredded a truce that was

agreed last year between Turkey, Iran

and Russia. It had created a buffer

zone between the last remaining

pockets of rebel-held territory and

Assad’s forces.

The scale and intensity of the

bombardment that followed, includ-

ing attacks on health facilities and

and Iranian allies, they are all jihad-

ist-allied terrorists. With the Turkish

border closed to refugees, there is

nowhere left for them to go.

“The regime and Russia push the

‘terrorist’ narrative for a very sim-

ple reason: they genuinely believe

it. For years now, Idlib has been the

dumping ground for irreconcilable

fi ghters and civilians, all of whom,

for whatever reason, refused to con-

sider a life in regime-held territories,”

says Charles Lister , director of the

Countering Terrorism and Extremism

programme at the Washington -based

Middle East Institute.

Jihadist groups had a presence

in Idlib even before Syria’s civil war

broke out. During the confl ict their

growth has been motivated by many

factors, including the relentless sav-

agery of the regime in the battles for

Aleppo , Deraa , Homs and Ghouta.

A fragile ceasefi re in Idlib brokered

by Russia and Turkey fell apart after

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihad-

ist umbrella group that grew out of

al-Qa ida’s Syrian affi liate, wrested

control of the province from the

Turkish-backed moderate National

Liberation Front (NLF) in January.

Civilians in some places have had

to abide by HTS’s rules and, in May,

the NLF was forced into an alliance

with HTS to fend off the current

regime assault. Estimates of HTS’s

strength vary from about 15,000 to

30,000 fi ghters.

world and ruled by an unpopular,

repressive militant group.

The international community,

however, has largely stood by and

watched as the predictable crisis in

Idlib has unfolded.

“The Assad regime has understood

that, in the western imagination,

the fear of terrorist attacks always

supersedes humanitarian concerns.

For years, the international commu-

nity sat on the sidelines of the Syrian

confl ict as the regime methodically

suppressed all civic opposition and

depopulated swathes of supposedly

oppositionist territory.

“After eight years of war, it has

become clear that there is no cruelty

the Assad regime could infl ict that

The area has been under sustained

air and ground attack for four months

and the civilian cost has been bru-

tal. About 500,000 people have fl ed

their homes, many to camp out on the

Turkish border. At least 45 schools

and 42 health clinics have been tar-

geted by violence, according to the

International Rescue Committee , as

well as bakeries and marketplaces.

At least 881 civilians and more than

2,000 rebel combatants have died ,

along with 1,400 pro-Assad troops.

If Assad, blocked by Turkey, strug-

gles to retake Idlib from HTS, the

options for those inside the province

remain bleak. Fears are growing that

the area could become another Gaza

Strip – sealed off from the outside

Three million caught in crossfi re as Assad

army vows to capture every inch of Syria

Offensive in Idlib

threatens entire region

as Turkey fears a new

infl ux of refugees

schools, led the United Nations to

launch an inquiry. It will investigate

government targeting of UN-backed

facilities and protected civilian sites

that were on a list provided to Syrian

authorities.

Assad claimed that his troops

attacked only because Turkey did

not stick to its commitments to keep

extremists out of the area, which

Turkey rejects.

Aid agencies say civilians fl eeing

the military advance face desper-

ate conditions in makeshift refugee

camps without water or sanitation,

and with shortages of food. With the

Turkish border to the north sealed,

however, they have nowhere else to

go as the fi ghting intensifi es.

The Syrian authorities have

opened a “humanitarian corridor”

for non-combatants to leave, but

it leads to government-controlled

areas, and few of those trapped see

it as a safe escape route. Returnees

with opposition links have faced

detention, conscription or worse

when arriving in parts of the coun-

try ruled by Assad’s forces.

Khan Sheikhoun was targeted by

Continued from page 29

Emma Graham-Harrison

Rebel

control

Idlib

Latakia

Turkey Aleppo

Idlib province

20 miles

20 km

Syria

Damascus