| | | Date: Jun 19, 2019 | | Source: The Daily Star |  |  |  |
| | Northwest Syria clashes kill 55 fighters | BEIRUT/BEIJING: Clashes between pro-government forces and insurgent-led groups that control Syria’s northwest killed at least 55 combatants Tuesday, an activist group said.
The fighting flared on the edge of Hama province when militant group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham launched a dawn attack on regime positions, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
At least 14 pro-government forces and 41 militants and rebel fighters were killed in clashes, the Observatory said.
“Regime forces foiled the attack,” Observatory head Rami Abdel-Rahman told AFP.
State news agency SANA also said the offensive had been thwarted.
Hama’s northern countryside lies on the edge of an extremist-controlled region including most of Idlib province.
The frontline had been relatively calm since clashes Saturday killed more than 35 combatants, including militant and regime forces, Abdel-Rahman said.
Regime airstrikes on northern Hama and neighboring Idlib had also paused for more than 24 hours, before resuming Tuesday following the latest bout of fighting, according to the activist group.
The bombardment killed one civilian in southern Idlib, it said.
Parts of Aleppo, Hama and Idlib are 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 militants refused to withdraw from a planned demilitarized zone.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Russia and Turkey “to stabilize the situation without delay.”
Meanwhile, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Syria did not want to see fighting with Turkey, after Turkey said one of its observation posts in Syria’s Idlib region was attacked from an area
controlled by Syrian government forces.“We hope that our military and the Turkish military do not fight. This is our principled stance,” Moallem told reporters in Beijing, standing alongside the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councilor Wang Yi.
“What we are fighting is terrorists, especially in Idlib, which is Syrian territory, part of our country,” Moallem said in Arabic comments translated into Chinese. While the dominant force in the Idlib region is HTS, other groups, including some with Turkish backing, also have a presence.
“The question now is, what does Turkey want to do in Syria? Turkey is occupying part of Syrian soil, and has a military presence in certain parts of Syria,” Moallem added. “Are they protecting the Nusra Front [HTS]? Are they protecting certain terrorist forces including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement?” he said, referring to an extremist group China blames for attacks in far western Xinjiang with operations elsewhere.
“This question needs to be asked of Turkey, what are their actual aims? We are fighting those terrorist groups and organizations. The whole world believes those people we are fighting are terrorists.” |
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