ANSD : Idlib militants vow to keep fighting as deadline looms

FRI 26 - 4 - 2024

Date: Oct 16, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Idlib militants vow to keep fighting as deadline looms

BEIRUT: The dominant alliance in Syria’s last major rebel stronghold of Idlib province said Sunday that it would continue to fight, hours before a deadline for the militants to withdraw from a planned buffer zone.

“We have not abandoned our choice of jihad and fighting toward implementing our blessed revolution,” said Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance led by Al-Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate.

HTS did not say whether it agreed with or rejected a Russian-Turkey deal agreed last month to set up the demilitarized area around the northwestern region of Idlib to stave off a regime assault.

The militants Sunday had yet to begin withdrawing from the planned buffer zone, activists said, amid reports of rebel shelling.

Under the Russian-Turkey deal the horseshoe-shaped area was to be free of heavy arms by Oct. 10 with “radical fighters” pulling out by Monday.

While the deadline for withdrawing heavy weapons was met on time, there has been no indication that the second condition is being implemented. “We have not monitored any withdrawals by jihadi fighters at all from areas falling in the planned buffer zone,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An AFP correspondent in Idlib also said no hard-line factions had moved any of their units in recent days. Idlib and surrounding rebel zones are held by a complex array of factions.

Less than half is controlled by the Ankara-backed National Liberation Front, the main rebel conglomerate there.

But the lion’s share is held by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance led by former Al-Qaeda members, as well as Hurras al-Deen and Ansar al-Islam.

Those militants also control more than two-thirds of the planned buffer zone and are supposed to leave it by Monday. Hurras al-Deen has publicly rejected the agreement.

While Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, widely considered the most powerful force in the area, has not publicly commented on the accord, it quietly abided by its first deadline and re-stationed its heavy arms elsewhere, according to the observatory.

Observers have said that getting it to execute the deal’s second half would be much more challenging.

In a recent report for the Turkey-based Omran Center, expert Nawar Oliver described HTS’s approval as the deal’s ultimate “test.”

“If HTS acts as a spoiler to the agreement on the ground, this will probably lead to one of two scenarios: either Turkey and the NLF launch military action against HTS, or Russia will seize the opportunity with the support of the regime and its allies to enter Idlib,” he said.

“The ramifications of that move could be vast,” he added.

Syrian pro-government newspaper Al-Watan reported Sunday morning that rebels targeted western parts of Aleppo province with “rocket fire and shelling with heavy weapons, which were supposed to be pulled out from the area.”

And an AFP correspondent in western Aleppo reported heavy mortar fire in the area after several days of quiet.

The observatory also said rebels in the zone fired several “mortar shells at an army position in nearby Hama province, killing two soldiers” late Saturday.

“This is the first clear violation of the deal since the heavy weapons were withdrawn. This area is supposed to be clear of heavy weapons, including mortar shells,” observatory head Rami Abdel-Rahman said.

Meanwhile, Syrian state terrestrial TV station resumed broadcasting to the eastern city of Deir al-Zor and surrounding areas for the first time in seven years, pro-state TV reported, the latest in government efforts to restore normal life to areas it has recaptured from armed groups.

Al-Ikhbariya said technicians have installed two transmitters to broadcast state television station and Voice of Youth radio, covering the city of Deir al-Zor and surrounding areas.

Government forces, aided by Russian aircraft and allied militia, chased Daesh (ISIS) militants out of the city and most of the western banks of the Euphrates river last year.

In a separate offensive that occasionally raised tensions, rival U.S.-backed Syrian Defense Forces fought the militants on the eastern banks of the river and along the border with Iraq.

The Kurdish-led forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition air power, continue to battle Daesh militants in Hajin, a small pocket east of the river.

Omar Abou Leila, a Deir al-Zor native residing in Europe, said the TV broadcast was restored to government-controlled areas west of the Euphrates, but not to SDF-controlled areas east of the river. Saturday, Daesh militants stormed a settlement for displaced people in Hajin and abducted scores of civilians.

The U.S-led coalition said it couldn’t confirm news of the kidnapping. It said it has been dropping leaflets requesting civilians leave the area for months “to avoid the brutal tactics” of the extremist militant group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had said 130 families were kidnapped in the attack that came amid intense fighting between Daesh and the U.S.-backed SDF.

The attack also came amid a desert storm and low visibility.

The SDF reported civilians were kidnapped but didn’t elaborate.

Abou Leila, who runs the Deir al-Zor 24 news network, said the militants kidnapped civilians during their attack on the Hajin camp, as well as SDF fighters.

“It is the last battle for the militants. They are besieged,” Abou Leila said.

Images appeared on social media of the militants holding at least a couple of men wearing uniforms. In the posting, the militants boasted it has taken Kurdish fighters captive.

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