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SYRIA-CONFLICT-HAMA LEAD
Syria flare-up kills 35 fighters, 10 civillians: monitor
BEIRUT, June 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – At least 10 civilians and 35 combatants,
mostly pro-regime forces, were killed Saturday in clashes and air strikes
that erupted at dawn in northwestern Syria, a war monitor said.
The flare-up came as Russian-backed regime forces tried to retake two
villages seized by jihadists and allied rebels earlier this month, the
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“Since this morning, the Syrian regime and allied fighters have launched
five failed attempts to regain control of Jibine and Tal Maleh in
northwestern Hama province,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Syrian regime air strikes killed nine jihadists and rebel fighters, the
war monitor said.
Ensuing clashes in the north of Hama province left 26 pro-regime forces
dead, including eight who were killed in a mine explosion, the Observatory
said.
In neighbouring Idlib, regime air strikes killed 10 civilians, including
three children, the Observatory said.
The strikes hit the towns of Maaret al-Numan and Al-Bara as well as the
village of Al-Ftira, according to the war monitor.
The Idlib region of some three million people is supposed to be protected
from a massive regime offensive by a buffer zone deal that Russia and Turkey
signed in September.
But it was never fully implemented, as jihadists refused to withdraw from
a planned demilitarised zone.
In January, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance led by Syria’s former Al-
Qaeda affiliate extended its administrative control over the region, which
includes most of Idlib province as well as adjacent slivers of Latakia, Hama
and Aleppo provinces.
The Syrian government and Russia have upped their bombardment of the
region since late April, killing nearly 400 civilians, according to the
Observatory.
Turkey said Friday that it did not accept Russia’s “excuse” that it had no
ability to stop the Syrian regime’s continued bombardments in the last rebel
bastion of Idlib.
“In Syria, who are the regime’s guarantors? Russia and Iran,” Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told state news agency Anadolu in a televised
interview.
“Thus we do not accept the excuse that ‘We cannot make the regime listen
to us’,” he said.
His comments came as Turkey disagreed with Russia earlier this week after
Moscow claimed a new ceasefire had been secured in the province following
weeks of regime bombardments — a claim that was denied by Ankara.
Syria’s war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions
since it started in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests.
Russia launched a military intervention in support of the regime in 2015,
helping its forces reclaim large parts of the country from opposition
fighters and jihadists.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1919 hrs