An aerial photo taken on Dec. 22, 2019, shows Syrian families fleeing the village of Hazano, about 20 km northwest of the city of Idlib, towards the Syrian-Turkish border. (AFP / Aref Tammawi)
Mon 23 December 2019:
At least 80,000 civilians have fled a renewed onslaught by Assad regime forces against the opposition-held enclave of Idlib in northwest Syria.
Eight more people, including three women and two children, were killed on Sunday when Russian fighter jets struck a convoy of cars leaving the city of Maarat Al-Numan. It followed Russian airstrikes on Saturday on a market in Saraqeb city, east of Idlib, in which at least eight died.
Idlib is nominally controlled by a militant alliance led by the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, but residents said many towns and villages were now deserted.
“They have turned into ghost towns. Russia’s ‘scorched earth’ bombing is helping the army gain ground,” said Mohamad Rasheed, an activist from the area.
Western military sources said the latest bombardment was a prelude to a widescale ground offensive to take over Idlib, Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s last remaining target.
But the civilian flight north toward the border with Turkey is creating a new refugee crisis for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The regime offensive also calls into question the presence of 12 Turkish observation posts in northwest Syria, part of a 2017 deal with Russia and Iran to avert large-scale fighting there.
Regional analyst Halid Abdurrahman said the posts were now pointless because the regime could surround and bypass them.
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