Gagrule.net

Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

Syrian government and Russians target Idlib in heavy strikes

By

Syrian and Russian warplanes have targeted Idlib province in Syria. The airstrikes on the last major rebel bastion are the “most violent” in a month, and could presage Damascus’ and Moscow’s wider intentions.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 68 air raids and 19 barrel bombs dropped on several towns and villages in Idlib and Hama provinces in less than three hours on Saturday.

The air raids in the densely populated rebel-held area were the “most intense” in weeks and followed Russian airstrikes that killed four rebels and a shepherd in Idlib province on Friday.

The raids targeted jihadist and rebel positions, some of which were empty and others in use, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. Idlib is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist alliance led by an al-Qaeda-affiliated group.

The bombings included barrel bombs dropped from helicopters into the area of three million people, about half of whom are already displaced from fighting elsewhere in Syria.

More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria’s civil war started in 2011 with the repression of anti-Assad protests.

Damascus’ ‘retaliation’ 

The government said it was retaliating against overnight shelling from rebel-held areas on a government-held town in Hama province, south of Idlib, which killed nine civilians, according to state media. Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime has been sharpening its talk of retaking Idlib in the past month.

The bigger picture

The renewed violence comes after Russia, regime ally Iran and rebel backer Turkey on Friday failed to agree a solution to avert a government offensive. Russia and Iran are key allies of Assad, while Turkey supports some of the rebels.

A summit in Tehran on Friday between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was seen as an opportunity for a diplomatic solution before a full assault on Idlib. The three nations are allied against Islamic State.

US toothless

The US has little leverage to stop Russia, Iran and Syria pressing ahead with a massive military assault against Syria’s northwest Idlib province.

The new US special envoy for Syria said recently that the US would stay in Syria until the complete eradication of the Islamic State group and will be watching Idlib closely over the next week ahead of UN-led talks on Syria in Geneva on September 14.

Idlib is widely seen as the last opportunity for the US to exert influence in Syria, and if the province falls before the talks, the Trump administration’s efforts to re-engage with peace talks could fail.

jbh/rc (AP, AFP, dpa)

Turkey’s time running out in Idlib

By

Idlib residents war

Syrian government tells Idlib residents war “is close to an end”

“In an ominous sign, [Syrian] regime helicopters reportedly began dropping fliers on Idlib, calling on residents to lay down their arms and collaborate with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,” reports Amberin Zaman. “In copies shared by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the leaflets say the Syrian war ‘is close to an end,’ that it’s time to stop the bloodletting and that residents should join reconciliation ‘as our people did in other parts of Syria.’”

“Faced with a weakening economy and sharpening popular resentment against the presence of Syrian refugees, who are perceived as stealing jobs and hogging government resources, Ankara has been scrambling to get Russia to exercise its leverage over the [Syrian] regime to delay any combative action against Idlib,” writes Zaman. “The province has become a holding pen for thousands of opposition rebels and their families evacuated from other parts of Syria, most recently Daraa and eastern Ghouta, as they fall back under the regime’s control. The al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir Sham (HTS), a rebranded iteration of the extremist militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, remains the dominant force in Idlib. …Turkey’s efforts to lure away enough ‘moderate’ fighters from the group to trigger an eventual fracturing and dissolution of it have yet to materialize.“

“Turkey maintains 12 observation posts around Idlib to separate Syrian government forces and the various armed groups in Idlib. As Russia and the United States see things, Idlib is ‘Turkey’s problem’ not least because until it switched tactics in late 2015, Turkey was a top sponsor of the rebels — and allegedly of Jabhat al-Nusra as well. In the event of a regime offensive the Turks would have to withdraw or face the risk of getting caught in the middle of the carnage,” adds Zaman.

The Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) “began tentative talks with Damascus in July in the hope of eventually reaching some form of accommodation that would, among other things, grant Syria’s long oppressed Kurds a say in their own affairs,” Zaman writes. “That is a long way off, given the regime’s resistance to any loosening of its administrative grip. The optimal result for now would be securing regime assistance in restoring logistical services, including water and electricity, in the broad swath of northeastern Syria that is under YPG control.”

“Military cooperation in Idlib, however, could pave the way for a similar effort to force Turkish forces out of Afrin. The mainly Kurdish enclave was invaded by Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies in January and has remained under their control since. Aldar Xelil, a top Syrian Kurdish official, told the Russian press in July, ‘Our forces are ready to take part in an operation to liberate Idlib.’ Noting that there were Kurds in Idlib, Xelil continued, ‘Idlib is under occupation by terrorist groups supported by Turkey. Freeing this city is our duty as Syrian citizens.’”

Another Turkish aggression on neighboring country Syria’s Idlib in progress

By

Turkish troops travelling in a convoy of 12 armoured vehicles have entered northern Syria in a new military operation.

Turkish news media reported that the vehicles carrying the troops crossed into Idlib province late on Thursday, Aljazeera reports.

The development came after Turkey said it was sending troops into Syria to enforce a de-escalation zone in Idlib.

The de-escalation zone forms part of an agreement reached between Turkey, which backs forces battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and Iran and Russia, which support his government.

Turkish media sources said the convoy included about 80 soldiers.

Local sources told Al Jazeera the troops were headed towards the western part of Aleppo province.

Erdogan conspired with Saudis to help militants in Syrian Idlib onslaught: Report

By

15647c06-378a-49ae-907a-e651e488f908A recent report has revealed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conspired with Saudi Arabian authorities and facilitated the ground for foreign-sponsored militants to capture the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib last March following days of clashes with Syrian troops.

The report, published by Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Manar satellite television network and citing unnamed sources, said that Riyadh funneled weapons and money to the militants, including the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra group, while Ankara provided logistical support as well as massive fire cover for the extremists.

The al-Manar report also said that a command center was set up in Turkey in order to organize the offensive against Idlib, located roughly 295 kilometers (183 miles) north of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Saudi officials, in return, paid for satellite images that the command center needed for the purpose.

Moreover, Turkey supplied the militants during the battles with Wi-Fi Internet connectivity via an unmanned aerial vehicle that flew overhead and linked the computers and smart phones used by the militants together.
On March 28, foreign-backed militants seized Idlib in northwestern Syria after more than five days of fierce fighting with units of government forces.

Syria has been plagued by a deadly crisis fueled by Takfiri groups since March 2011. More than 222,000 people have so far been killed in the conflict, according to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Over 3.8 million Syrians have also fled the violence to neighboring countries, namely Jordan and Lebanon, and more than 7.2 million others have also become internally uprooted, according to the United Nations.

MP/HJL/HRB

Syrian military source alleges Turkish role in Idlib offensive

By

BEIRUT/AMMAN

(Reuters) – A Syrian military source accused Turkey on Monday of helping Islamist rebels to stage an assault on Idlib, a provincial capital which fighters seized at the weekend.

The source declined to comment on the situation in Idlib, citing security considerations, but a monitoring group has confirmed the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and allies now control Idlib and said the Syrian air force bombed the city on Monday.

The fall of Idlib, 30 km (20 miles) from the Turkish border, marks only the second time in the Syrian civil war that Damascus has lost control of a provincial capital. The first was Raqqa, which the ultra-radical Islamic State group has turned into the de facto capital of its self-declared caliphate.

Echoing more general comments by President Bashar al-Assad, the military source accused both Turkey and Jordan of supporting the insurgents in their Idlib offensive, saying they were “leading operations and planning them”. The insurgents were using advanced communication apparatus that had been supplied to them via Turkey, the source added.

The Turkish foreign ministry declined to comment.

Turkey is one of the regional states most hostile to Assad, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In an interview with the U.S. network CBS, Assad described Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan as a “Muslim Brotherhood fanatic” who was directly supporting insurgents “logistically and militarily” daily.

Syria’s government has not commented on the fall of Idlib, though the pro-government Watan newspaper published in Damascus reported on Monday that the Nusra Front and its allies had raised the al Qaeda flag over government buildings in the city.

Nusra Front was joined by groups including the hardline Ahrar al-Sham in seizing Idlib on Saturday, a reminder of the pressures facing Damascus after more than four years of crisis.

The Islamist alliance rejected a call by the Turkish-based mainstream political opposition to let an interim government set up its headquarters in Idlib, saying it would ruled by those “in the trenches and not in hotels”.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the monitoring group, said warplanes staged a number of raids on Idlib. More than 170 people on both sides were killed in the fighting, including at least 126 Syrian insurgents, the Observatory said.

GOVERNANCE QUESTION

The setback for Assad in Idlib coincides with growing tension over Yemen between Saudi Arabia and Iran, one of Assad’s firmest backers. Turkey has come out in support of a Saudi-led military intervention against Iranian-allied Houthis in Yemen.

The Syrian conflict, in which an estimated 220,000 people have been killed, has been a major arena for Iranian-Saudi rivalry.

The Nusra Front’s influence in northwestern Syria has been expanding at the expense of mainstream rebel groups, some of which received U.S. military support. It is a rival of Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot that has seized territory in both Syria and Iraq.

Ahrar al-Sham issued a statement urging the people of Idlib to help fighters run the city and saying they were not seeking to set up an Islamic emirate.

“There was an agreement by all factions to protect and ensure that essential services are continued,” said an Ahrar al-Sham fighter who said he was speaking from Idlib during an interview conducted via the internet. He did not give his name.

But there are many questions over how groups that won Idlib in a joint operation will run the city.

“The rebels have certainly shown they can cooperate on the battlefield – that is not new – but the governance question has been much more difficult for them, particularly in the north, and particularly in Idlib province where Nusra has been asserting unilateral dominance,” said Noah Bonsey, a senior analyst with International Crisis Group.

Mainstream rebel groups fighting Assad in southern Syria say they recently received increased support from his foreign enemies in response to a government offensive there.

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory, said the death toll among Syrian government forces and personnel was much lower than among insurgents. An opposition activist in the area said the government had withdrawn personnel and anything sensitive to the state in apparent anticipation of losing the city.

(Reporting by Tom Perry and Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Omar Fahmy in Cairo, and Humeyra Pamuk and Jonny Hogg in Turkey; Writing by Tom Perry; editing by David Stamp)

 

Syrian troops thwart al-Qaida attack on Idlib city

By

syrian-troopsSyrian government forces on Monday thwarted an infiltration attempt by radical rebels into the northwestern city of Idlib and wrested back control over a town in the central province of Hama, the state news agency SANA reported, according to Xinhua.

A group of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front attempted to infiltrate Idlib earlier on Monday, but the attempt was repelled by Syrian troops and pro-government fighters, SANA said, denying media reports that the Nusra Front seized control of the city.

Government forces killed dozens of rebels in the countryside of Idlib after destroying their positions, SANA said.

The Nusra Front’s assault on Idlib was an apparent attempt to ease the pressure on rebel positions in the northern countryside of Hama, where government forces made major advances recently, according to military experts.

On Monday, the Syrian army continued its progress in Hama, capturing the town of Buwaida, SANA said.

In addition, dozens of “terrorists” were killed on Monday in the towns of Kafr Zaita, Sayyad, Mork and Latamneh in Hama countryside, SANA said, citing a military source.

An undisclosed number of rebels were also killed in the countryside of the central province of Homs, the news agency said.

More than three years’ conflict in Syria has killed over 190, 000 people and displaced millions of others.