Syrian Army close to last rebel holdout

Syria’s military has vowed to keep up its campaign to regain control of the whole country, days after capturing large chunks of territory from the last rebel holdout in northwestern Syria.

Russia has heavily backed the Syrian government’s offensive. The fighting led to the collapse of a fragile cease-fire that was negotiated with Turkey in 2018.

The advance of forces supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad into rebel-held areas of Idlib and Aleppo province has also sparked a large-scale humanitarian crisis.

Nearly 600,000 people have fled the fighting since December. Most of the displaced are living in open-air shelters and temporary homes in freezing winter conditions closer to the Turkish border.

Half of the displaced are believed to be children.

A main backer of the armed Syrian opposition, Turkey has sent in large military reinforcements into the rebelheld areas. But the buildup has not stopped the Syrian government advance.

Syrian military spokesman General Ali Mayhoub said the Syrian Army had seized a geographical area of more than 600 sq km and captured dozens of towns and villages.

But the government campaign appears to be aimed at securing a strategic highway in rebel-controlled territory for now, rather than seizing the entire province and its the densely populated capital, Idlib.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government troops were only a few kilometres from seizing full control of the strategic highway, know as M5.

The highway links the national capital of Damascus with the country’s north, which has for years been divided between government and opposition forces.

Rebels, including some of the most radical militant groups, control much of Idlib province and parts of the neighbouring Aleppo region.

These areas are home to some 3 million people — many of them displaced from other parts of Syria.