Opposition fighters prepare to make a stand

BEIRUT • Syrian opposition fighters blew up bridges Friday linking areas they control to government-held territories in northwestern Syria in anticipation of a military offensive against their last stronghold in the country, activists and a war monitor said.

The explosions rocked the area in al-Ghab plains, south of Idlib and came after rebels detected government troop movement in the area, ac- cording to Rami Abdurrahman, head of the war monitoring Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Abdurrahman said two other bridges remain in the area and could be used by government forces to move in on the rebel stronghold.

Most of Idlib province and adjacent strips of Hama province remain in the hands of an assortment of armed groups, some Turkeybacked and others independent Islamist groups. But the strongest alliance of fighters is led by an al-Qaida-linked group that controls most of the area that is also home to some three million people.

Thousands of government troops and allied fighters have been amassing in areas surrounding Idlib while Russia, Syria’s powerful ally, has said a military operation was necessary to weed out “terrorists” it blames for attacking its bases on the coast.

The Observatory said Turkey-backed rebels blew up the bridges as part of their reinforcement around the stronghold.

They have dug trenches, built berms and fortified their posts. Al-Qaida-linked authorities have also called on residents to take part in supporting the fighters, either through building reinforcements, volunteering to fight, or in field hospitals and kitchens to help men deployed on the frontline.

It also called on residents to take to the streets after Friday prayers against an offensive and in support of the fighters. Thousands protested in various towns in Idlib and Hama, denouncing threats of an attack and hailing the area’s readiness to fight.

The campaign for Idlib is likely to be the last major theatre of battle after seven years of brutal civil war.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters Friday that it was necessary to minimize risks for civilians in Idlib. Russia has repeatedly claimed that rebels are preparing a chemical weapons attack in Idlib that the West could blame on President Bashar Assad’s forces and use as a pretext for retaliatory strikes.

The U.S. State Department has said it will hold Moscow, an ally of Damascus, responsible if government forces use chemical weapons in the battle for Idlib.

UN investigators have already attributed several chemical attacks in Syria to government forces, including one attack using the nerve agent Sarin gas against the Idlib town of Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017.

That attack prompted the U.S. to carry out a rare strike against a Syrian military installation. In April, the U.S., France and Britain launched punitive strikes after a chlorine gas attack on a suburb of Damascus then held by the opposition. The U.S. also holds the government responsible for a Sarin gas attack that may have killed over 1,000 people in August 2013 in the Ghouta suburbs of Damascus.