Syria’s Idlib shelled as rebels brace for assault

INTERNATIONAL CALLS MOUNT TO AVERT MASSACRE IN THE BESIEGED PROVINCE AS RUSSIA SAYS STRIKES TARGETED ONLY MILITANTS

The Syrian military shelled the last stronghold of active rebellion against President Bashar Al Assad yesterday, as a war monitor said insurgents blew up another bridge in anticipation of a government offensive.

Damascus, backed by allies Russia and Iran, has been preparing an assault to recover Idlib and adjacent areas of the northwest, resuming air strikes along with Russia on Tuesday after weeks of lull.

Idlib’s fate now appears likely to rest on the results of tomorrow’s Tehran summit between the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran — a meeting that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said would make the situation “clearer”.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said Tuesday’s air strikes had only targeted militants and not populated areas. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said they had killed 13 civilians, including children, but no fighters.

US warning

The ministry said it targeted buildings used to store weapons and explosives, including a facility used to assemble explosive-packed drones that rebels have used to attack Russian planes stationed at Hmemim airbase.

US led international calls yesterday to avoid a “massacre” by regime forces in Idlib.

Troops have been massing on the edges of the northwestern province on the border with Turkey for weeks, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster on a scale not yet seen in Syria’s seven-year conflict. The US urged Syria and its backers to halt plans for an all-out military attack against rebel-held Idlib as the UN Security Council prepared to address the crisis.

“With millions of civilians at risk, an offensive against Idlib would be a reckless escalation,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley said in a statement.

“The regime and its backers must stop their military campaign in all its forms to allow the UN-led political process to have a chance to succeed.”

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday was the latest to warn Damascus against an all-out offensive against a region the United Nations says is home to nearly three million people.

“God forbid, a serious massacre could take place if there is a rain of missiles there,” said Erdogan, whose country has supported Syrian rebels.

Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that pro-government forces focused their shelling overnight and yesterday on the western and southern edges of the rebel enclave.

The countryside around Jisr Al Shughour in the west of the enclave was also the main target for Tuesday’s air strikes, rescue workers, a rebel source and the British-based Observatory said.

The human rights group Amnesty International said yesterday that the lives of “millions of people in Idlib are now in the hands of Russia, Turkey and Iran”, and urged all parties not to attack civilians.

Idlib’s rebel factions are divided, with a terrorist alliance that includes Al Qaida’s former official Syrian affiliate holding most ground. The alliance, Tahrir Al Sham, is designated a terrorist organisation by UN.