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SYRIA-CONFLICT-UPDATE
Fierce fighting kills dozens in northwest Syria
AL-TAMANA, Syria, Dec 30, 2017 (BSS/AFP) – Intense fighting killed dozens
of people on the edge of the last Syrian province entirely outside government
control as aid workers completed a series of medical evacuations from another
rebel-held area on Friday.
Government and allied forces backed by Russian warplanes took on mostly
jihadist fighters in an area straddling the border between Idlib and Hama
provinces.
The fighting, which could signal the start of a major offensive to wrest
Idlib province from rebels dominated by a former Al-Qaeda affiliate,
escalated on Thursday.
Since then, at least 68 people have been killed in the ongoing clashes
centred around an area called Al-Tamana, said the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights.
Among them were at least 21 civilians, said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads
the Britain-based monitor.
They were killed in air strikes carried out by Russian warplanes and by
barrel bombs dropped by Syrian aircraft, he said.
Twenty-seven soldiers and members of allied paramilitary units were killed
in the fighting as well as 20 rebels from Islamist groups or from former Al-
Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham, he added.
Abdel Rahman said the latest deaths brought the number of civilians killed
in the area since Monday to 42 and the death toll among combatants to 90.
– Worst in months –
An AFP correspondent near the front line said aerial activity was intense
and the entire area rocked by frequent air strikes.
Through loudspeakers, rebel leaders warned remaining civilians that Friday
Muslim prayers were cancelled and all residents should stay home.
Hundreds of civilians fled the scattering of villages in the area,
creating queues of cars and pickup trucks loaded down with bags and furniture
on the roads towards the city of Idlib.
Southeast of Al-Tamana, a Syrian cameraman working for a pro-regime TV
network Sama was killed Friday when his crew was targeted by “terrorists”
near the village of Umm Haratain, state news agency SANA said.
“The air strikes haven’t been that intense in months in this area,” said
Abdel Rahman, adding that the immediate goal of the latest regime push was to
retake control of the southeast of the province.
The Islamic State jihadist group, which proclaimed a “caliphate” over
swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, has now lost almost all the land it once
controlled.
But other factions opposed to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad
still control pockets scattered across Syria, the largest one being Idlib
province, which borders Turkey.
Another is Eastern Ghouta, a small enclave east of the capital Damascus,
which is controlled mostly by rebels from the Jaish al-Islam group and where
around 400,000 residents still live.
– Ghouta swap –
The humanitarian situation there has deteriorated sharply in recent months
and on Friday aid workers completed a series of medical evacuations of some
of the most critical cases.
The last 13 in a group of 29 priority patients have now been evacuated,
together with 56 members of their entourage, a health official said.
They were deemed among the most pressing cases on a list of around 500
people the United Nations said last month could die without urgent treatment
outside the enclave, which has been besieged for four years.
Among them was Marwa, a 26-year-old woman suffering from meningitis and
Zuheir Ghazzawi, a 10-year-old boy with cancer who had had a leg amputated.
The Observatory said the patients were evacuated as part of a deal that
saw the rebels who control Eastern Ghouta release hostages and prisoners.
There were also 29 of them, including workers who were detained earlier
this year and pro-government fighters captured by rebels in the area, in some
cases years ago.
The International Committee of the Red Cross welcomed the evacuation as “a
positive step”.
“But more needs to be done. The needs of civilians should come first, be
it in Ghouta or elsewhere in Syria, and access to aid should be allowed on a
more regular basis and without conditions,” said the ICRC’s Syria chief
Marianne Gasser.
Dozens of jihadist and rebel fighters were meanwhile evacuated from a key
stronghold near Damascus under a deal with the Syrian regime, state
television reported.
It said 10 buses “transported Al-Nusra fighters and members of their
families from Western Ghouta” towards Idlib and Daraa provinces.
Al-Nusra Front now calls itself Fateh al-Sham Front. It is a former Al-
Qaeda affiliate that dominates the northern province of Idlib.
And state news agency SANA reported that dozens of bodies of civilians and
Syrian troops killed by Islamic State jihadists had been found in two mass
graves in the west of Raqa province.
It was not immediately clear when they had been killed or how many bodies
there were in total.
BSS/AFP/MRI/ 0843 hrs