Terror and dismay in last stronghold as Assad’s deadly rockets rain down
Bombing in the Syrian province of Idlib has become so intense that families have taken to drawing diagrams for neighbours of where rescuers might find them should their homes be reduced to rubble. “We made a picture of where we all sleep, so they know where to start looking for us,” one resident said. “We gave it to friends down the road, just far enough away that hopefully their house won’t have been flattened, too.”
In its attempts to seize the rebels’ largest remaining stronghold, the regime is pursuing an assault so deadly it threatens to become the most brutal of the seven-year war. Some 100,000 civilians have fled southern Idlib and neighbouring Hama in a matter of weeks, the UN’S humanitarian co-ordination office UNOCHA has said.
“The situation in Idlib today is far worse than it was a year ago in Aleppo, the shelling is doubling daily, especially on the southern suburbs,” Ahmed Al-sheikho, a White Helmets rescuer in the city, told The Daily Telegraph by phone.
“I can only describe it as a scorchedearth policy. The last rescue mission I participated in with my team was a few days ago, when a large bomb killed 31 people, most of them women and children. I’ve seen many incidents before, but this one was different. The most horrifying thing was the look on the people’s faces, the survivors who could not understand how they survived or what’s next for them.”
The regime hopes to first seize control of southeastern parts of Idlib province, which is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-sham, an Islamist group, to secure a main road between its capital Damascus and Aleppo.
The province is one of four “de-escalation zones” agreed upon by Russia and Iran, who back president Bashar al-assad, and Turkey, which backs the opposition, during peace talks last year. Turkey has said the new offensive is a clear violation of the deal.
Displaced by fighting, huge numbers of people in the south of the province are now crammed into neighbourhoods further north, leading to unprecedented casualties from air strikes, Mr Sheikho said.
“People considered Idlib to be the safest and final destination for them to go,” he said. “Now when such attacks happen, the amount of injured people and deaths becomes shocking.”
The Syrian Network for Human Rights has documented the deaths of 120 civilians, including 33 children and 25 women, since the offensive began at the end of December. More than two thirds of the displaced are living in makeshift tents near the
‘The amount of injured people and deaths becomes shocking’
Turkish border, with the remainder either living in abandoned or partiallybuilt homes or rented accommodation, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) told The Telegraph.
Those unable to make it to the camp sites have been forced to sleep out on the streets in near-freezing conditions with little more than the clothes they managed to take with them. Hundreds are attempting to smuggle themselves across the border into Turkey every day, according to Turkish authorities, only to be arrested and sent back.
“We are extremely concerned for the safety of the 2.6million people living in Idlib if the front line continues to advance,” said Thomas Garofalo, the IRC’S Middle East director for public affairs. “People have told us that they will have no choice but to uproot themselves once again and head further north.”
Ankara has recently been working with Moscow and Tehran for a political resolution to the conflict. But Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, said the Idlib offensive was endangering those efforts.
“This isn’t a simple air strike, the regime is advancing into Idlib. The goal is different here,” he said. “If the aim here is to make some unwilling opposition groups go to Sochi [in Russia] it will backfire,” he added, referring to Russian plans to host a meeting on Syria later this month.
Russia has offered to spearhead the rival peace talks in an attempt to marginalise the Un-sponsored Geneva process, which, after years of little progress, is considered dead in the
‘This isn’t a simple air strike, the regime is advancing into Idlib’
water. Opposition groups have so far refused to go to Sochi, claiming Moscow is not a fair broker.
Another of the four zones, the besieged Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, is also being bombarded daily.
Government forces are trying to reclaim the area, which is home to some 400,000 people and is the opposition’s only remaining territory near the Syrian capital. Shelling and air strikes have claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians in recent weeks and living standards have plummeted.
Unicef, the United Nations children’s agency, has said that 12 per cent of children under five in Eastern Ghouta have acute malnourishment.
One family lost their infant son after he was hit by a mortar shell as they walked to the market for food. “My child died hungry. We wanted to feed him. He was crying from hunger when we left the house,” said Heba Amouri, two-year-old Emir’s mother.
Yesterday Emir’s father carried the tiny body wrapped in bright white cloth to his village’s cemetery.
“May God protect the children, and everyone, and take the life of Bashar [Assad],” he said, as he bid his son a final farewell.