(Zaman Al Wasl)- The regime army and Iranian-backed militias backed by Russian air power on Thursday have made gains in northeastern Syria, stepping up a military campaign against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in a push towards its stronghold of Idlib province, local activists and commander said.
The regime and allied militias have also seized control of four villages in the southern countryside of Idlib, Khattab al-Jazrawi, field commander at HTS told Zaman al-Wasl.
The regime army took a village and hilltop from Tahrir al-Sham in the southern countryside of Aleppo as the former al-Qaeda affiliate announced general mobilization to face the major offensive.
For a week, dozens of Russian airstrikes hit opposition-held villages and towns in the northeastern Hama countryside and the southern part of Idlib province.
The Islamist alliance and some Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel faction in control of these areas said they were sending reinforcements to seize back a string of villages in the northeastern Hama countryside.
The regime army had lost the strategically located Idlib province to insurgents when the provincial capital fell to rebels in 2015. It has since become the only province that is fully under opposition control.
The army’s first goal was to retake strategic Abu al Dhour military airport, one of the largest airports in the north of the country that fell to rebels in 2015. It was heavily bombed on Sunday, a rebel source said.
“The regime movements seek to besiege Idlib province with the help of Shi‘ite militias fighting with them,” said Colonel Mustafa Bakour, a commander in the Jaish al Izza rebel faction.
Tahrir al Sham, which is spearheaded by the former al Qaeda branch in Syria, is the main rebel force in the province, raising fears among civilians and rebels alike that Moscow and the Syrian army and its allies would soon turn it into a major battlefield.
The strategically located province that borders Turkey is part of the Russian-led de-escalation zones that seek to shore up ceasefires in western Syria.
Idlib has been a haven for tens of thousands of rebels and civilians who were forced to abandon their homes in other parts of western Syria that the government and its foreign military allies have recaptured from rebels.
It has already been the target of intensive strikes by the Russia and Syrian air forces in the past year that have killed thousands of civilians and destroyed hospitals and civil defense centers.
Tahrir al Sham also repelled simultaneously an offensive by Islamic State militants who have been for the last few weeks pushing into the opposition-controlled territory to extend a small enclave they have in that area, among the few they retain across Syria.
The ultra hardline militants also seized a string of villages that brought them within kilometers of Idlib province.
The Russian and regime army advance towards Idlib is also piling pressure on Turkey which had since October begun a major military deployment in the province it considers within its sphere of influence.
Ankara’s intervention seeks to rein in Russian strikes and prevent Idlib from facing a similar fate to Mosul or Aleppo, according to a senior rebel commander briefed on Turkish policy. (With Reuters)
Zaman A Wasl
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