Assad forces capture key rebel town
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian government forces captured one of the largest and most strategic rebelheld towns in the country’s northwest, the Syrian military and opposition activists said Wednesday, part of a Russianbacked military assault that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people fleeing to safer areas.
The town of Maaret alNuman in Idlib province, which had been in rebel hands since 2012, sits on the highway linking Damascus with Aleppo and is considered critical to President Bashar Assad’s forces. The town is now largely empty as a result of intense bombardment in recent weeks.
Its capture is the latest in a series of military triumphs for Assad. His forces have retaken control of most of the country from rebel fighters, largely because of blanket air support from Russia, which helped turn the tide in the nearly nineyear civil war.
The Syrian conflict has left more than 400,000 people dead and displaced half of Syria’s population, including more than 5 million who are refugees, mostly in neighboring countries.
An exception to the Syrian government’s success in retaking territory from rebel groups has been Idlib province in the northwestern corner of the country near the Turkish border, which is held by opposition fighters and is dominated by al Qaedalinked militants. The province is home to some 3 million people, many of them internally displaced.
Syrian government forces have been on the offensive for more than a month in Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in the country. But in recent days, the government captured more than a dozen villages in the area as the insurgents’ defenses began to crumble.
“Our armed forces continued operations in southern parts of Idlib with the aim of putting an end to crimes committed by terrorist groups,“said army spokesman Brig. Gen. Ali Mayhoub. He listed more than a dozen villages and towns captured, including Maaret alNuman.
But the push appears to have angered Turkey, which backs the opposition and has for years coordinated with Russia, a main backer of Assad, during the conflict. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed frustration with Moscow over its failure to halt Syrian government attacks in Idlib.