Warning of ‘civilian bloodbath’ in Syria

▶ Saudi authorities have responded by allowing visas on arrival for Qatari pilgrims

Syrian government forces shelled rebel and extremist positions in the north-west province of Idlib on Thursday and dropped leaflets warning of an assault.

The province is the largest chunk of Syrian territory still in rebel hands, and President Bashar Al Assad has said it would be his next priority.

The United Nations appealed on Thursday for talks to avert “a civilian bloodbath” in Idlib.

“The war cannot be allowed to go to Idlib,” the head of the UN humanitarian task force for Syria, Jan Egeland, said in Geneva.

Mr Egeland said he was hopeful that diplomatic efforts could avert a major ground offensive that would force hundreds of thousands to flee.

“It is bad now” in Idlib, Mr Egeland said. “It could be 100 times worse.”

The warning came as government helicopters dropped leaflets over towns in east Idlib, urging people to surrender.

“The war is nearing an end ... we are calling on you to join the local reconciliations, as many of our people in Syria did,” the leaflets said. “Your family, children and future depend on your decision.”

Such surrender deals have typically meant rebels hand over territory to government troops in exchange for a halt to shelling, the return of state institutions and a chance to either join regime forces or be taken to other rebel-held areas.

Heavy artillery and rocket fire on Thursday morning hit territory around Jisr Al Shughour, a key town in the south-western part of the province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“The shelling is in preparation for an assault but there has been no ground advance yet,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the UK-based war monitor. “Regime reinforcements including equipment, soldiers, vehicles and ammunition have been arriving since Tuesday,” he said.

They were being distributed along three government-held fronts, including in neighbouring Latakia province just west of Jisr Al Shughour, in the Sahl Al Ghab plain south of Idlib, and in a sliver of the province’s south-east that is already in government hands.

Al Watan newspaper, which is close to the government, reported that army troops had also bombed rebel and extremist positions in the area.

Idlib, which has been outside regime control since 2015, lies along the border with Turkey but is otherwise nearly completely surrounded by government-held territory.

About 60 per cent of the province is now held by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, which is led by Al Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate, while the rest is controlled by rival opposition factions. Syrian troops have recaptured key areas of the country in recent months with help from ally Russia, which has brokered a string of surrender deals with rebels.

The determination of believers to complete the Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, has been tested over the centuries. In the era before air travel, pilgrims endured weeks or months crossing the Arabian peninsula in caravans, which were often attacked by outlaws. One of the worst documented examples occurred in 1757, when tribesmen fell upon one such caravan making the return trip from Makkah to Damascus, killing the Ottoman guards and slaughtering or leaving for dead in the desert some 20,000 of the faithful. But still pilgrims, determined to fulfil their once-in-a-lifetime commitment to their faith, continued to make the perilous journey.

During the period of British rule in India, the empire’s bureaucrats wrestled with the problem of impoverished Indian Muslims, duped by unscrupulous traders into parting with whatever money they could raise for passage to Jeddah but finding themselves dumped on the western shore of the Gulf, more than 1,200 kilometres from Makkah and with the vastness of Rub’ al Khali between them and their soul’s desire. Some were rescued by exasperated British forces; many more died in the desert.

Now, on the eve of Hajj, the faithful of Qatar face a challenge from an unexpected quarter – their own government. Embroiled in a dispute with the quartet, Doha is attempting to prevent its citizens from performing Hajj – a decision rightly condemned by Dr Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, as perverse and disgraceful – by blocking access to Saudi’s online registration portal. It should be unthinkable that the Hajj, a central tenet of the faith with which all Muslims are obliged to comply if they are physically able, would be exploited for political gain. That Qatar has chosen to do so demeans its government, insults its own people and offends Muslims everywhere.

The Saudis, who take extremely seriously their responsibility as custodians of the twin holy places, are doing everything they can to facilitate the passage of Qataris, including offering Hajj visas on arrival, as The National reports today. Hopefully Qatar’s Muslims, like the numberless, determined legions of the faithful in whose footsteps they follow, will find a way through.