Syria: Assad's forces 'seize' crossroad town as Turkey sends convoy into Idlib
Syrian forces claim to have seized the highway junction town of Saraqeb near Idlib, capital of the last major rebel enclave in Syria. Since Friday, neighboring Turkey has dispatched 430 military vehicles into the region.
The Syrian army said on Saturday that it had taken control of the strategic northwestern town of Saraqeb as it continues an offensive in the Idlib region, the country's last major rebel stronghold.
News of the seizure was announced by Syrian state television broadcasting live from Saraqeb, located at the junction of the M4 highway, which stretches east from the Mediterranean, and the M5, which brings traffic 300 kilometers (186 miles) north from the capital, Damascus, toward Aleppo.
The junction town's capture capped a weekslong offensive by President Bashar Assad's forces. According to the UN, the operation has forced 580,000 people to flee, many of whom were already displaced, and left 300 civilians dead.
Read more: Idlib — the Syrian region abandoned by the world
Saraqeb, which months ago had had 110,000 residents, has been in large part leveled by bombardment, with many of its inhabitants fleeing the town, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"Our aim is to clear the highway," a Syrian commander told state television, referring to the M5, which leads on to Aleppo, whose rebel-held eastern section was captured by Assad's forces back in 2016.
The Observatory said Assad's forces still did not have access to 30 remaining kilometers (18 miles) of Syria's northwestern highway network.
Turkish-manned observation posts
News of Saraqueb's capture comes after a convoy of 430 Turkish military vehicles crossed into Idlib, the province named like its densely packed regional capital, from Friday night, said the Observatory.
That brought Turkey's vehicle count since last weekend to over 1,000, it said.
Turkey has 12 observation posts inside Idlib province, set up under a 2018 truce, in a shrinking rebel area occupied by some 3 million people near Turkey's border.
Some 50,000 rebel fighters, a mixture of jihadis and opponents to Assad's regime, are still in the area, according to Observatory estimates.
Rebels inside Idlib are continuing to fight government forces
Turkey's Anadolu news agency, citing a Turkish security source, said the sole mission of the convoy, which was accompanied by commandos, was to reinforce three outposts surrounded by Syria's army.
The Observatory said the Turkish vehicles were on a front line north of Saraqeb.
"In the event of a new attack, a proper response will be given in the strongest manner, based on the right of self-defence," the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a tweet.
Russia-Turkey frictions
On Saturday, a Russian delegation met with Turkish officials in Ankara. Turkey has long urged Moscow to convince Assad to end the offensive.
Last Monday, Turkish soldiers were caught in an exchange of shelling with Russian-backed Syrian troops, leaving more than 20 reported dead on both sides.
Fahrettin Altun, top press aide to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Saturday warned that Ankara would not tolerate the situation unfolding in Idlib.
"Bashar al-Assad's place in the future ... is not the presidential palace but the International Court of Justice at The Hague," said Altun.
The United Nations and aid groups warn that further Syrian encroachment into Idlib risks creating one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of Syria's nine-year war.
ipj/jlw (AFP, Reuters, AP)
Syrian government set to retake key M5 highway: monitor
Issued on: 09/02/2020
Beirut (AFP)
Syrian regime forces Sunday were set to retake a key motorway connecting the capital Damascus to second city Aleppo following weeks of battles in the rebel-held Idlib region, a monitor said.
The M5 has been long in the sights of the Syrian government as it seeks to revive a moribund economy after nearly nine years of war.
It connects Aleppo, once Syria's economic hub, to Damascus and continues south to the Jordanian border and recapturing it would allow traffic to resume between economically-vital parts of war-torn Syria.
After weeks of steady regime advances in Syria's northwest, only a two-kilometre section of the M5 remains outside government control, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
Pro-government forces on Sunday were closing in on the last sliver in the southwest of the Aleppo province neighbouring the Idlib region where they have been battling rebels and jihadists, the monitor said.
"Regime forces have gained new ground and now control several villages near the motorway," Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman told AFP.
Since December, Russian-backed government forces have pressed a blistering assault against Idlib, Syria's last major opposition bastion, retaking town after town from their opponents in the region.
The violence has killed more than 300 civilians and sent some 586,000 fleeing towards relative safety nearer the Turkish border.
On Saturday, the Syrian army captured the Idlib town of Saraqeb, located on a junction of the M5 highway, state media said.
Troops then pressed north along the motorway past Idlib's provincial borders and linked up with a unit of Syrian soldiers in Aleppo province, according to the Observatory and state agency SANA.
It was the first time in weeks the two units joined up after waging separate offensives against rebels and jihadists in Idlib and Aleppo.
A little more than half of Idlib province remains in rebel hands, along with slivers of neighbouring Aleppo and Latakia provinces.
The region is home to three million civilians, half of whom have already been displaced from other parts of the country.
Some 50,000 fighters are also in the shrinking pocket, many of them jihadists but the majority allied rebels, according to the Observatory.
The United Nations and aid groups have appealed for an end to hostilities in the Idlib region, warning that the exodus risks creating one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of the nearly nine-year war.
© 2020 AFP
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