Syrian jets pound rebels
Air strikes batter last stronghold
BEIRUT — Syrian and Russian warplanes launched dozens of air strikes on Syria’s northern province of Idlib Saturday, a monitoring group said, intensifying pressure on the country’s last rebel stronghold after crisis talks yielded no progress.
At least seven civilians were dead after at least 80 air strikes around the province’s southern edge, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It said the violence was the “most intense” in weeks, with helicopters also dropping barrel bombs packed with shrapnel.
Pro-government forces have massed on the edges of Idlib, wedged into Syria’s northwest along the Turkish border.
Syrian and Russian officials — key allies in Syria’s long conflict — appear to be preparing for an all-out assault to retake the area for good.
But there are deep fears that an attempt to reclaim Idlib could touch off major bloodshed and a humanitarian crisis among the area’s 3 million civilians, half of them displaced from elsewhere in Syria.
At a meeting in Tehran Friday, the presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey failed to agree on a ceasefire to halt the violence.
Although on different sides of the war, Turkey and Russia share an interest in preventing the situation from unravelling.
Turkey worries the violence could send hundreds of thousands of fleeing civilians to its border.
Russia is wary of being drawn deeper into a bloody battle as it tells international partners that Syria is stabilizing and open for reconstruction. The Observatory said Saturday that some 2,000 people were already on the move from areas being bombed, heading deeper into Idlib province.
Al-Qaida-linked rebels, known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, control more than half of Idlib, and much of the Russian and Syrian government rhetoric has focused on a need to defeat the group.
It’s also home to a Turkey-backed coalition known as the National Liberation Front, as well as civilians who’ve left their previous homes instead of agreeing to “reconciliation” agreements with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Many fear conscription or arrest.
The state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV said Saturday that the Syrian government was retaliating against rebel shelling on a government-held area south of Idlib.