Syria leaflets urge reconciliation
Papers dropped in rebel-held region; groups fear attack
BEIRUT — Syrian military helicopters on Thursday dropped leaflets over parts of the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib, calling on residents to reconcile with the government as warplanes pounded the region, opposition activists said.
The message came as a top humanitarian adviser to the U.N. warned that “war cannot be allowed to go to Idlib.”
Jan Egeland said the U.N. had appealed to Turkey to open its border to refugees from Idlib should the Syrian government decide to attack the province, now the last major bastion of the armed opposition in the country and home to over 1 million internally displaced Syrians.
Humanitarian organizations have shared the GPS coordinates of 235 sites, including the locations of medical facilities and schools, with the Russian, Turkish and U.S. militaries, in the hopes that warring parties would avoid targeting them in the eventuality of a battle, said Egeland.
But the strategy of President Bashar Assad’s forces has been to target precisely those institutions where medical professionals work and civilians shelter, according to rights groups following the seven-year conflict.
Egeland said a push by the government would destroy the province and aggravate an already-dire humanitarian situation marked by insufficient shelter and substandard hygiene, water and medical distribution. Some 2.9 million people are residing in the province, said Egeland.
The government’s leaflets promised the war “is close to an end” and called for Idlib residents to join in reconciliation “as our people did in other parts of Syria,” according to photos posted by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights conflict monitor.
The leaflets signed by the Armed Forces Command showed photos of Syria before and after the war with a caption that read: “This is how Syria was before terrorism.”
Ibaa news agency, the media arm of al-qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, said the leaflets were dropped over the towns of Taftanaz, Kfarya and Binnish.
Activists said even as helicopters dropped the leaflets, warplanes pounded several rebel-held areas elsewhere in Idlib, which has become home to tens of thousands of internally displaced people.
Ibaa said the leaflets were part of a “psychological war” by the government, which has not been able to capture Idlib militarily.
Monitoring groups say at least 400,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war. More than 11 million others — or half of Syria’s prewar population — have been displaced, according to the U.N.