Date: Aug 13, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Idlib weapons depot explodes, killing 39 Gemma Fox| The Daily Star BEIRUT: At least 39 civilians, including 12 children, were killed Sunday in a large explosion in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib, in what is believed to have been a weapons storage site for an arms dealer linked to militants, activists said. The large blast collapsed two five-story buildings in Sarmada, a town located in the north of Idlib province, with rescue teams struggling to pull out victims buried under the rubble. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the explosion was caused by an arms depot that detonated in the basement of a residential building. It added that the depot was run by an arms dealer with links to militant group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. The building was located in a residential part of Sarmada close to the Turkish border. Dr. Alaaeddine, who was at the site to help the wounded, told The Daily Star from Sarmada that he saw women and children buried in the rubble. “Children of the arms dealer who owned the building were also among the dead,” he said. The death toll is expected to rise further as more people are found under the rubble. The observatory later said that most of those killed were family members of HTS militants displaced from the central Homs province. Three HTS members were also killed, it added. With links to Al-Qaeda, HTS controls around 60 percent of Idlib province, the last stronghold of rebels opposed to the rule of President Bashar Assad. Assad has warned that retaking Idlib is the next priority for the government, after forces swept through the country and regained control over vast swaths of rebel-held territory. The government has vowed to wage “the mother of all battles” and Thursday dropped leaflets calling on the opposition factions to “join local reconciliation [agreements].” Ahead of what is expected to be an imminent large-scale offensive, the government has been stepping up its bombardment of the province, and Sunday sent huge military reinforcements to the outskirts of Hama. At least four militants from the Turkmenistan Islamic Party in Syria were seriously wounded in clashes with government forces and an armored vehicle belonging to HTS was destroyed, Syrian state media SANA reported. Pro-government activists also said on social media that the Tiger Forces, an elite brigade led by Brig. Gen. Suhail al-Hassan, had arrived in northern Syria to spearhead what was being named the “Dawn of Idlib” campaign. The United Nations has warned that an offensive in Idlib would trigger a humanitarian crisis and has called on both sides to step back to avoid “a civilian bloodbath.”Jan Egeland, head of the U.N.’s humanitarian task force for Syria, said last week that “the war cannot be allowed to go to Idlib.” Around 3 million people live in the Idlib province, most of them internally displaced from other parts of the country. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara has finalized preparations to create more safe areas in Syria, which would allow for the return of refugees. Speaking at his AK Party’s provincial headquarters in the Black Sea city of Trabzon, Erdogan said a quarter of a million people had already returned to liberated areas in Syria. “God willing, soon we will have liberated more places and made more areas safe,” he added. Erdogan is facing rising domestic pressure to start sending some of the 2.7 million refugees that Turkey hosts back to Syria. Turkey is also heavily invested in northwest Syria with troops manning 12 observation posts in Idlib, as agreed during talks earlier this year with Russia and Iran. Turkey supports a number of rebel factions in Idlib, and under the pretext of providing an alternative force to push back against HTS’ dominance, has been trying to get them to coalesce under the banner of a new “National Liberation Front.” Ankara has warned that any offensive into Idlib would be crossing a “red line,” while Damascus has said Turkish forces are “invaders.”