TURKS IN SYRIAN BORDER ASSAULT

Ankara launches campaign to restore security to Idlib province

Turkish troops yesterday exchanged fire with Syria-based extremists as Ankara massed military vehicles on the frontier ahead of an expected operation to oust Al Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate from Idlib province.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Saturday announced the launch of an operation by pro-Ankara Syrian rebel forces, backed by the Turkish army, to reimpose security in Idlib.

Most of the north-west region is controlled by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, a group led by Al Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate, Fateh Al Sham – formerly known as Al Nusra Front – which ousted moderate rebels in recently.

Turkey has deployed special forces and military hardware, including tanks, on the border but the operation has yet to begin in earnest, monitors and sources in the area said.

But Turkish forces fired seven mortars over the border with the aim of easing the passage of the pro-Ankara Syrian forces.

Turkish forces have also been seen removing parts of the security wall Ankara built on the border so that military vehicles can pass through into Syria.

Pro-government media said that the operation was now into its second day, but it was not immediately clear what the Turkish military’s next move would be.

Yesterday morning, members of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham opened fire on Turkish forces removing part of a wall along the border between Turkey and Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

The observatory reported “heavy exchanges of fire”, but said the incident did not appear to mark the start of the operation Mr Erdogan described on Saturday.

Turkish armoured vehicles and troops were waiting on the border, from where smoke could be seen from the mortar fire, an AFP photographer said.

Television images showed locals in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli in Hatay province cheering as more armoured vehicles were driven through the town overnight.

Ankara appears keen to oust Hayat Tahrir Al Sham from Idlib to create a de-escalation zone into which it can send military monitors to implement a ceasefire.

Turkey, along with Syrian regime allies Russia and Iran, earlier this year agreed a deal to implement four such ceasefire zones in Syria as a prelude to talks on a peace deal.

The zone encompassing Idlib is the last one to go into effect, and its implementation has been held up by fierce opposition from Hayat Tahrir Al Sham.

On Saturday, the group warned “treacherous factions that stand by the side of the Russian occupier” should only enter the area if they want “their mothers to be bereaved, their children to be orphaned, their wives to be widowed”.

Turkey earlier this year wrapped up its half-year Euphrates Shield operation against extremists and Kurdish militia in Aleppo province that involved the Turkish army and Syrian rebels.

The Hurriyet daily newspaper said the pro-Ankara forces involved in this operation, which Turkey calls the Free Syrian Army, would be the same as in Euphrates Shield.

“Since summer, Turkey has been reorganising those rebels and pulling them into a new politico-military structure that is supposed to be more cohesive,” said Aron Lund, fellow with The Century Foundation think tank.

Turkey is working in co-operation with Russia, even though the two countries have been at loggerheads throughout the six-year Syrian civil war, with Moscow backing the regime and Ankara the rebel groups seeking to oust president Bashar Al Assad.

Syria’s former Al Qaeda affiliate, which currently goes by the name Fateh Al Sham Front, was a key ally for many rebels in the country, but they are now abandoning the group as a Turkey-backed operation takes place in its stronghold.

The group, which was known as Al Nusra Front, is the most powerful faction in Syria’s north-west province of Idlib, which remains largely beyond the control of the regime.

It heads the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham coalition, which brought together an array of sympathetic rebel and extremist groups and holds sway across Idlib after ousting rival factions earlier this year.

But the coalition has been hit by successive defections in recent months, leaving Fateh Al Sham isolated just as neighbouring Turkey appears to be readying an offensive against the extremists with help from Syria rebel fighters.

“People used to adore Al Nusra, but now they’re waiting for the Turkish army to enter and finish them off,” an opposition activist said.

On Saturday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Syrian rebels would stage a military operation in Idlib “to ensure security”.

The operation is linked to a deal agreed earlier this year by rebel backer Turkey and regime allies Russia and Iran to implement four de-escalation zones in Syria.

While most rebel groups have acquiesced to the ceasefire zones, the extremist coalition Tahrir Al Sham, of which Fateh Al Sham Front, fiercely opposes it. A Syrian rebel commander said on Saturday that the Ankara-backed operation in Idlib aimed to drive Tahrir Al Sham from the entire province.

Tahrir Al Sham, which is listed by the US and others as a terrorist group, has about 10,000 fighters in its ranks, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

It is the regular target of regime and Russian air strikes, with Moscow alleging this week that the group’s leader, Abu Mohamed Al Jolani, had been seriously injured in a raid, a claim the group denied.

And its ranks are being rapidly depleted in advance of the expected Turkish operation, with its coalition now effectively reduced to Fateh Al Sham.

Ahmed Abazeid, a Syrian researcher at the Turkey-based Toran Centre, said the Tahrir Al Sham coalition was always “essentially a sham”.

“The decision-making and leadership remained in the hands of Al Nusra Front,” he said.

“A Turkish intervention has been on the table for a long time,” he said. Turkey had been working to encourage defections “to isolate the group associated with Jolani”, he said. The first move, however, came from Tahrir Al Sham’s side, with the extremists in July launching an assault on its most powerful ally, Ahrar Al Sham, and evicting it from all but a few parts of Idlib.

Soon after, the prominent Nureddine Al Zinki faction abandoned Tahrir Al Sham and at the end of last month, the faction serving as the coalition’s elite force, Jaish Al Ahrar, also jumped ship.

They cited “the increasing number of painful internal incidents” and their departure prompted further defections from Tahrir Al Sham.

The schisms and defections mean Tahrir Al Sham “has shrunk and is now confined to its primary component”, said Sam Heller, a Syria expert at the Century Foundation think tank.

He said the defections could be read as “opportunistic in anticipation of a Turkish intervention”.

Charles Lister, a Syria expert at the Middle East Institute, said the conflict had “entered a new stage”, with extremists now seen as a toxic ally for rebel groups.

“Being attached in any way to groups like Tahrir Al Sham is becoming an increasingly risky choice,” he said.

“Syrians are being forced to embrace a more pragmatic approach to their revolution.”

But a more hardline Al Qaeda current in Tahrir Al Sham opposes any compromise and wants a confrontation.

A more hardline Al Qaeda current in Tahrir Al Sham opposes any compromise and wants confrontation