Idlib shelled ahead of regime offensive

Province is the largest piece of territory still in rebel hands and the next priority for the Al Assad government

Syrian regime forces shelled rebel positions in the northwestern province of Idlib yesterday, a monitor said, as reinforcements arrived ahead of an expected assault.

The province is the largest piece of territory still in rebel hands, and President Bashar Al Assad has warned it would be his military’s next priority.

Yesterday morning, artillery and rocket fire slammed into territory around Jisr Al Shughour, a key town in the southwestern part of the province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“The shelling is in preparation for an assault but there has been no ground advance yet,” said Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman.

“Regime reinforcements including equipment, soldiers, vehicles and ammunition have been arriving since Tuesday,” he told AFP.

Syrian activists also say military helicopters have dropped leaflets over parts of of Idlib, calling on residents to reconcile with the government.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights posted a copy of the leaflets. They say the Syrian war “is close to an end,” that it’s time to stop the bloodletting and that residents should join reconciliation “as our people did in other parts of Syria.”

Meanwhile, the UN said that negotiations were urgently needed to avert “a civilian bloodbath” in Idlib.

“The war cannot be allowed to go to Idlib,” the head of the United Nations humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, told reporters in Geneva.

Idlib, which has escaped regime control since 2015,

60%

area of Idlib is now held by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham

2.5m

people live in Idlib province including rebels and civilians

lies along the border with Turkey but is otherwise nearly completely surrounded by government-held territory.

Around 60 per cent of it is now held by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), which is led by Al Qaida’s former Syria affiliate, while the rest is controlled by rival opposition factions.

Syrian troops have recaptured key swathes of the country in recent months with help from ally Russia, which has brokered a string of surrender deals with rebels.

Apparently fearing a similar arrangement for Idlib, HTS has been arresting dozens of figures in the province that have been go-betweens with the regime calling them “chiefs of treason,” according to an HTS-linked media agency.

Idlib is home to around 2.5 million people, including rebels and civilians transferred en masse from other territory that fell to Syrian troops after intense assaults.