IDLIB, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Islamist rebels belonging in particular to the Hayat Tahrir al Cham group, formerly linked to al Qaeda, seized territories in northwestern Syria this week previously controlled by other rebels, supported by Turkey, said Friday the two camps and the OSDH.
Fighting for control of the city of Afrin, taken by pro-Turkish rebels from the Kurds of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2018, left around 30 dead, including nearly a dozen civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
Hayat Tahrir al Cham fighters now control the city and other villages in northern Aleppo province. They threaten two other key towns, Azaz and Al Bab, according to local officials who have called on the population to stand up to them.
The province of Idlib and part of the province of Aleppo, in northwestern Syria, escape the control of the army of President Bashar al Assad, supported by Russia and Iran, and host hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians who fled the repression of the regime in Damascus when the popular uprising of 2011 degenerated into armed conflict.
Turkey, which received millions of refugees on its territory during the war, deployed troops there to try to stabilize the situation and facilitate the return of some of these Syrians.
(Report by Khalil Ashawi and Maya Gebeily, French version Tangi Salaün, edited by Nicolas Delame)
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