Section:GDN 1N PaGe:21 Edition Date:190821 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 20/8/2019 20:01 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Wednesday 21 Au g u st 2019 The Guardian •
World^21
Pro-Assad troops
prepare to take
key Syrian town as
insurgents pull out
Martin Chulov
Middle East correspondent
Insurgent groups have withdrawn
from Khan Sheikhun in north-west
Syria, clearing the way for pro-
government forces to enter the town
in a pivotal moment in the war for Idlib
province, the country’s last major
rebel stronghold.
The development came hours after
Turkey deployed tanks and armoured
cars deep into Syria , partly in response
to advances by forces fi ghting on behalf
of Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad.
Khan Sheikhun has been a key tar-
get in a military campaign launched in
late April. The campaign had stalled
until recent days, despite relentless
Russian-led airstrikes that had forced
up to 500,000 people to fl ee their
homes in southern Idlib.
Aid agencies yesterday said the
infl ux of those displaced from south-
ern and central Idlib has left them at
breaking point. Camps close to Turkey
were already overwhelmed before the
fi ghting intensifi ed and, with the Turk-
ish border sealed, those fl eeing have
nowhere left to run.
“The onslaught on civilians and
civilian infrastructure continues to
run rampant,” said the International
Rescue Committee’s Syria director,
Rehana Zawar. “The UN has said the
current escalation shows ‘a level of
destruction consistent with a bomb-
ing campaign aimed at a scorched
earth policy’. At least 45 schools have
been impacted by the violence and
42 attacks on healthcare have been
reported since the upsurge began.”
Medical facilities across south-
ern Idlib have been systematically
destroyed by airstrikes launched by
Russia and the Syrian air force, which
have also taken a heavy toll on baker-
ies and market places.
Much of Khan Sheikh un, the site of a
chemical weapons attack in April 2017
that killed an estimated 92 people,
had been levelled before insurgents,
spearheaded by the al-Qaida-linked
extremist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
(HTS), left the town. HTS said yester-
day that it made “a redeployment”
with its fi ghters withdrawing south of
the town. It said they would continue
to defend the territory from there.
The Turkish military yesterday
set up observation posts just north
of the town, overlooking a main road
between Idlib city and Hama prov-
ince, the fate of which had made Khan
Sheikh un a prized possession.
Extremist groups have blended with
other anti-Assad fi ghters throughout
Idlib and dominate parts of the prov-
ince. Their presence has been used as
a pretext by Russia and Syria to recap-
ture all of north-western Syria, where
up to 3 million people from all corners
of the country have taken refuge.
Idlib has become the last redoubt
of those who rose up against the Syr-
ian dictator during the Arab revolts of- As the regime – backed by Iran
and Russia – has clawed back early
losses, displaced populations have
been shepherded to the area.
Among them are whole communi-
ties from vanquished neighbourhoods
near Damascus and from Homs,
where the anti-Assad uprising gained
momentum early in the war. Opposi-
tion areas of Aleppo and border towns
near Lebanon were also sent to Idlib,
which has become the last destination
for Syria’s displaced. After eight years
of war , some have formed alliances
with extremists in order to survive.
Winning back Idlib has become a
primary goal of the Syrian leader and
Russia, and to a lesser extent Iran. Both
sides have been instrumental in saving
the government from defeat elsewhere
and shoring up its fortunes in Idlib.
Turkey has insisted that it would
not let the province fall militarily. To
do so would send tens of thousands of
refugees towards its borders at a time
when Turkish authorities have been
rounding up and deporting Syrian citi-
zens in Istanbul and other cities.
Ankara, Moscow and Tehran have
long pushed for a political solution
to the crisis. However, their interests
as the war winds down frequently
diverge. Turkey, a full-throated sup-
porter of opposition groups in the
confl ict’s early years, now views the
aftermath as a time to change the
dynamic with Kurds near the border.
Russia and Iran are looking to recoup
their heavy investments in blood and
funds in defence of Assad.
Khan Sheikhun has become a focal
point of the fi ght for Idlib because of
its position on a main highway linking
Idlib city with Hama to the south. The
town was home to about 1 million peo-
ple, nearly 700,000 of them displaced
by fi ghting in other parts of the coun-
try, before the government off ensive
began in April. In recent days hundreds
of civilians remained in the town.
LatakiaAleppoHamaTurkeyPro-regime
areaIdlibSyriaAl-Qaida-
dominated
area
Buffer
zoneKhan
SheikhunIdlib
province30 miles30 kmInsurgent groups have withdrawn
from Khan Sheikhun, clearing the
way for pro-government forces to
enter the townAnti-torture event postponed
after outcry over Cairo location
Harvest blessings Women receive a blessing with holy water at the
St Iversky monastery in Odessa, Ukraine, as they celebrate the Apple
Feast of the Saviour – a pagan harvest festival now more commonly
associated with the Christian Feast of the Transfi guration.PHOTOGRAPH:
NINA LIASHONOK/
UKRINFORM/
BARCROFT MEDIARuth Michaelson
CairoThe U N has postponed an anti-torture
conference due to take place in Cairo,
following an outcry from human rights
activists who accuse the organisation
of “whitewashing” the Egyptian gov-
ernment’s abuses.
The conference on “defi ning and
criminalising torture in the Arab
region,” was scheduled for 4 and 5
September. News of the UN’s choice
of location sparked outrage from Egyp-
tian human rights campaigners, who
said the conference ignored the Egyp-
tian government’s record on torture.
A draft copy of the agenda listed
participants including the UN special
rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer.
Rupert Colville , spokesperson forthe offi ce of the UN high commissioner
for human rights, explained that the
UN chose to postpone the conference
after learning of “the growing unease
in some parts of the NGO community
with the choice of location.” He added
the UN would reopen consultations on
when and where to hold it.
In an attempt to defend the origi-
nal decision to hold the conference in
Egypt he said: “There is of course quite
a lot of value in holding a conferencethat aims to try and reduce torture in
a country (and a wider region) where
torture is taking place,” he said.
“There’s rather less point in preach-
ing to the converted in countries where
torture never happens .”
“It’s a farce,” said Aida Seif el-Dawla
of the Cairo-based El Nadeem Center
for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Vio-
lence and Torture. She cited the daily
use of torture by the police in Egypt,
poor prison conditions, deaths due to
torture and medical neglect in prison
as examples, describing the overall sit-
uation as “ Kafk a esque.”
“This conference was a good oppor-
tunity for the Egyptian government,
but the UN shouldn’t participate in
white washing their reputation,” said
Moham ed Zaree of the Cairo Institute
for Human Rights Studies.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah
el-Sisi has said that the “western per-
spective ” on civil liberties shouldn’t be
applied to Egypt. Offi cials from Egypt’s
ministry of foreign aff airs, who were
due to speak at the conference, did not
respond when contacted for comment.‘The UN shouldn’t
whitewash the
Eg yptian reputation’Mohamed Zaree
Cairo InstituteRELEASED BY "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws