DOZENS DIE AS REBEL ALLIANCES CLASH IN ALEPPO
▶ Turkish allies leave Manbij outpost to join fight against Hayat Tahrir Al Sham
Hundreds of Turkey-allied rebels have been moved from frontlines near the Kurdish-held city of Manbij towards the countryside of Aleppo, where battles with Al Qaeda-linked fighters have killed more than 30 people since Tuesday.
The Syrian National Army, an alliance supported by Ankara, is planning an assault on Kurdish groups in Manbij.
But it delayed the operation to send reinforcements to western Aleppo on Tuesday to help in the fight against Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, SNA spokesman Youssef Hammoud told The National.
The SNA started massing north of the city of Manbij this month before an assault to clear the area of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, which is considered by Ankara to be a terrorist group.
“It is our duty to send fighters to Aleppo,” Mr Hammoud said, stressing that thousands of troops were still positioned near Manbij and were prepared to launch an assault.
“The deployment won’t affect the battle on Manbij and east of the Euphrates River.”
Hayat Tahrir, Syria’s strongest and largest militant group, is battling the National Liberation Front, another alliance backed by Turkey, in the western countryside of Aleppo province, activist networks say.
At least 14 Hayat Tahrir militants and 12 National Liberation Front fighters were killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Five civilians, including two children, also died in the fighting. Ten National Liberation Front fighters were taken captive.
Hayat Tahrir is trying to capture Darat Izza, a town 30 kilometres north-west of Aleppo, starting clashes with rival affiliates including the powerful Noureddine Al Zenki rebel group, a Zenki spokesman told The National.
Mohammad Adib said the battles were taking place on the edges of Darat Izza and that Hayat Tahrir had captured posts on the town’s outskirts.
Mr Adib said the rebels faced a “very difficult confrontation”.
“Hayat Tahrir is waging a fierce and bloody confrontation and it is not distinguishing between fighters and civilians,” he said.
“The aim is to expand Hayat Tahrir’s control over rebel-held areas in the north.”
The Zenki spokesman said Hayat Tahrir and allied militants were also gathering near the town of Khan Al Asal, 12km south-west of Aleppo city, before a possible operation to capture the area.
Hayat Tahrir and its allies dominate more than half of Idlib province, while the National Liberation Front holds most of the rest.
The two have regularly clashed over control of territory.
In October they struck a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal to try to end the fighting.
The latest round of clashes started after Hayat Tahrir on Monday accused Noureddine Al Zenki of killing five of its fighters.
The violence in the western countryside of Aleppo is not far from a demilitarised zone established by Turkey and Russia in the province of Idlib to prevent a Syrian government assault on the last major rebel stronghold in the country.
A wealthy aunt of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad was given the right to live in Britain even as the UK increased its support for the opposition to tackle the “barbaric crimes” of the regime, newly published documents reveal.
The woman, 63, is the fourth wife of Rifaat Al Assad, the man known as the Butcher of Hama for his role in commanding troops who killed up to 40,000 civilians in quelling a Muslim Brotherhood rebellion in 1982.
She has lived in Britain for more than a decade with two grown-up children. She was given indefinite leave to remain – a legal status – in the UK on August 9, 2012, despite the British government stepping up pressure on her nephew’s regime.
The day after, William Hague, who was foreign secretary, announced that the UK government would provide Syrian opposition groups with an additional £5 million (Dh23.1m) to monitor and record human rights offences.
“It is well recognised in the country that the situation in Syria is an affront to the conscience of humanity,” he said.
Former Syrian vice president Rifaat Al Assad, 81, went into exile in the 1990s after falling out with his brother Hafez, the former president and father of Bashar, after an aborted attempt to seize control of the country. He divides his time between the southern Spanish resort city of Marbella, Paris and London, where several relatives of the Al Assad family live, including the father of Bashar Al Assad’s British-born wife, Asma.
Rifaat Al Assad is said to own scores of properties in the three countries including a £10m mansion in London. He is reportedly under investigation for corruption and money laundering over alleged misuse of Syrian state funds.
His family has criticised the French-led inquiry. His fourth wife, to whom he has been married for 45 years, is named only as LA in legal documents.
She moved to the UK in 2006 and was given entry after describing herself as an investor in “bonds, hedge funds, etc”.
Details of her time in Britain emerged in a legal challenge against a decision by authorities to refuse UK citizenship for her, the couple’s two children and a third child of Rifaat Al Assad by another marriage.
One son, 43, is a founder of the Organisation for Democracy and Freedom in Syria and presents himself as a human rights campaigner, the documents showed. He and his mother cannot be named for legal reasons.
Both had applied for citizenship but were rejected after several years of consideration by the UK government. The interior ministry said in 2016 that it was not in the public interest to grant the wider Al Assad family citizenship. It said Rifaat Al Assad was “a well-known and prominent member of his brother’s regime during the 1970s and 1980s – a regime that is widely held to have committed crimes against humanity”.
“Although it is not possible to assess the exact nature of your current relationship with Bashar Al Assad and the Syrian regime, it is noted that the regime has become inextricably linked over the last few decades with the extended Assad family.”
Further confidential advice from the Foreign Office is included in 37 pages of legal documents related to an appeal by the four last year, which highlighted concerns about continuing links between the regime and family members now living abroad. The advice said that a house in Damascus was in constant use by some of Rifaat Al Assad’s children during the first year of the uprising. They were not identified.
The advice concluded that offering citizenship to his relatives would undermine the policy of working with Syria’s opposition to build a “credible alternative vision” for Syria’s future. It said that the decision would be seized on by critics of the government’s policies towards Syrian refugees.
The current status of indefinite leave to remain allows LA to live in the UK and claim benefits.
The documents said there were no grounds to revoke their leave to stay but that the case would remain under review.