{"id":12008,"date":"2018-08-19T02:23:10","date_gmt":"2018-08-19T02:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12008"},"modified":"2018-08-19T02:23:10","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T02:23:10","slug":"macron-and-merkel-warn-of-humanitarian-risks-in-idlib","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12008","title":{"rendered":"Macron and Merkel warn of \u2018humanitarian risks\u2019 in Idlib"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced concern Friday about the humanitarian situation in the opposition-held Syrian region of Idlib, which is shaping up be the country\u2019s next big battleground.
In a telephone call the two leaders described the \u201chumanitarian risks\u201d in Idlib, where regime forces have stepped up their bombardments of opposition positions in recent days, as \u201cvery high,\u201d according to the French presidency.
They also called for an \u201cinclusive political process to allow lasting peace in the region.\u201d
President Bashar Assad has set his sights on retaking control of the northwestern province of Idlib \u2014 the biggest area still in opposition hands after seven years of war.
Last week, regime helicopters dropped leaflets over towns in Idlib\u2019s east, urging people to surrender.\"\"
Idlib, which sits between Syria\u2019s Mediterranean coast and the second city Aleppo, has been a landing point for thousands of civilians and rebel fighters and their families as part of deals struck with the regime following successive regime victories.
The UN has called for talks to avert \u201ca civilian bloodbath\u201d in the northern province, which borders Turkey.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said US-backed forces had repelled a raid by Daesh targeting barracks housing American and French troops in eastern Syria.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the US-led coalition supporting them were on high alert after the raid late on Friday at the Omar oil field in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, the Britain-based war monitor said.
\u201cThe attack targeted the oil field\u2019s housing, where US-led coalition forces and leaders of the Syrian Democratic Forces are present,\u201d Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Seven terrorists were killed in the attack, which ended at dawn after clashes near the barracks, he added.
Contacted by AFP, neither the US-led coalition nor the Kurdish-led SDF were immediately available for comment.
In October last year, the SDF took control of the Omar oil field, one of the largest in Syria, which according to The Syria Report economic weekly had a pre-war output of 30,000 barrels per day. \u201cIt\u2019s the largest attack of its kind since the oil field was turned into a coalition base\u201d following its capture by the SDF, Abdel Rahman said.
Daesh overran large swaths of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a \u201ccaliphate\u201d in territory it controlled.
But the terrorist group has since lost nearly all of it to multiple offensives in both countries.
In Syria, two separate campaigns \u2014 by the US-backed SDF and by the Russia-supported regime \u2014 have reduced Daesh\u2019s presence to pockets in Deir Ezzor and in the vast desert that lies between it and the capital.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced concern Friday about the humanitarian situation in the opposition-held Syrian region of Idlib, which is shaping up be the country\u2019s next big battleground.In a telephone call the two leaders described the \u201chumanitarian risks\u201d in Idlib, where regime forces have stepped up their bombardments of opposition…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}