Regime presses Idlib offensive as people flee

Tens of thousands of residents are struggling to find shelter in harsh winter

Rapid advances by the Syrian regime’s army into rebels’ largest remaining stronghold, Idlib province, have brought it closer to a key insurgent-held military airport and displaced tens of thousands of people struggling to find shelter in winter weather.

Supported by Iran-backed militias and Russian air power, Bashar Al Assad’s forces have taken territory in northeastern Hama and southern Idlib provinces since beginning an offensive in late October.

The fighting and air strikes have forced more than 60,000 people to leave their homes since November 1, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

‘No de-escalation’

In recent days the offensive has escalated, with forces progressing towards the strategic Abu Al Duhur military airport, to which rebels laid siege in 2012 before completely ousting Al Assad’s forces in September 2015. A commander in a military alliance fighting in support of Damascus has said the army and its allies intend to capture the air base.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday the Syrian army and its allies had taken around 84 villages since October 22, including at least 14 in the past 24 hours.

Mustafa Al Haj Yousuf, head of Idlib’s Civil Defence, rescuers who work in oppositioncontrolled areas of Syria, said: “If martyrs, the displaced, the injured, are on the rise, collapsing the houses, striking civilians, targeting civilians? It’s as if there’s no de-escalation.” The United Nations said the situation of civilians newly displaced by the fighting in Idlib was “dire”, with humanitarian agencies struggling to meet their needs. Yousuf, of the Civil Defence, said that even after fleeing heavy frontline air strikes and shelling, people face an air campaign deeper inside the province.

He said there are not enough camps to cope with the flows, warning that if the army pushes up to Abu Al Duhur and beyond, “the displacement will double, it will multiply”.

“Most of them are sleeping on the ground, in tents that can’t protect from the rain or the cold. Some people are able to rent, but the rent prices have also been very high.”