Syrian rebels blast bridges fearing attack
IF ATTACKED BY REGIME, REBEL-HELD IDLIB ‘MAY SPARK HUMANITARIAN CALAMITY’
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said Turkeybacked opposition fighters have blown up two bridges linking areas they control to regime-held territories in anticipation of the offensive.
The bridges linked rebel and regime-held villages in Al Ghab plains, south of Idlib.
Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the observatory, said the explosions rocked the area and came after rebels detected troop movements in the area.
Its hospitals are battered, residents heavily dependent on aid and escape routes to neighbouring Turkey sealed. If attacked by regime forces, Syria’s rebel-held Idlib is poised for a humanitarian calamity. The northwestern province, which lies along the border with Turkey, has been held since 2015 by the extremist-led Hayat Tahrir Al Sham alliance and other rival rebels.
Idlib and slivers of adjacent provinces form the largest remaining block of rebel territory — and the next expected target of Bashar Al Assad’s troops and Russian allies.
But a military assault could overwhelm already struggling health facilities, cut off food and medical supplies to desperate civilians, and prompt massive levels of displacement, the United Nations has warned.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday he was “deeply concerned about the growing risks of a humanitarian catastrophe in the event of a full-scale military operation in Idlib”.
“A worst-case scenario in Idlib will overwhelm capacities and has the potential to create a humanitarian emergency at a scale not yet seen through this crisis,” John Ging, who heads operations and advocacy for the UN’s humanitarian coordination office told the Security Council last week.
Moscow and Ankara are in talks to try to thrash out a solution that would spare the three million people living in rebel territory.
They include tens of thousands of rebels and civilians evacuated to Idlib from other areas recaptured by regime troops.
Since Syria’s conflict erupted in 2011, more than 400,000 people have been killed, more than 11 million have fled their homes and medical infrastructure has been systematically targeted.
In the first six months of this year, there were 38 attacks on medical infrastructure in the province, most of them blamed on the regime or its Russian ally, according to OCHA.