{"id":13573,"date":"2018-09-02T07:24:29","date_gmt":"2018-09-02T07:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13573"},"modified":"2018-09-02T07:24:29","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T07:24:29","slug":"killer-blast-strikes-north-syria-town-as-regime-troops-target-idlib-fighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13573","title":{"rendered":"Killer blast strikes north Syria town as regime troops target Idlib fighters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT:\u00a0A blast killed at least one person in a region of north Syria controlled by Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups, a witness and a war monitor said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\nThe explosion in Azaz was caused by a car bomb, said the war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and hit a sit-in to demand new elections to the local council, the witness said.<\/p>\n

\nThe Observatory said one person was killed and others injured. The witness said two were killed and 25 injured.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey has staged two incursions into northern Syria since 2016 in support of rebels fighting President Bashar Assad, leading to its control over a zone along the border.<\/p>\n

\nIt took that territory after offensives against the two mutually hostile groups that previously controlled it: Daesh and the Kurdish YPG militia.<\/p>\n

\nAnkara has brought together some of the opposition groups it backs there into a unified armed force, which it trains and pays. It also pays for some services inside the area it controls.<\/p>\n

\nNorthern Syria has become a haven for large numbers of displaced people who have sought refuge from fighting elsewhere in the country, or who do not want to live under Bashar Assad.<\/p>\n

\nDamascus has mobilized forces for an expected offensive on the adjacent opposition-held area in and around Idlib province, which humanitarian agencies have warned could spark a new flood of displacement toward the border region.<\/p>\n

\nAssad\u2019s forces have been massing for days around Idlib near the Turkish border and look poised to launch what could be a last major battle in the civil war.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey on Friday officially designated the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) group as a \u201cterrorist\u201d organization.<\/p>\n

\nHTS is currently the most powerful armed faction in Idlib.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey, which has already listed Al-Nusra and Al-Qaeda as terror groups, updated its list of terror groups under a document published in the official gazette and includwed HTS on the new list.<\/p>\n

\nIt bracketed HTS as a variant name for Al-Nusra Front.<\/p>\n

\nThe HTS is dominated by the Fateh Al-Sham faction, which was previously known as Al-Nusra Front before renouncing its ties to Al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n

\nIt was not immediately clear whether Turkey\u2019s decision to update its list of terror groups to include HTS could indicate a green light from Ankara for a possible Russian-backed regime operation into Idlib.<\/p>\n

\nIntense negotiations have been under way for weeks between Russia and Turkey.<\/p>\n

\nTurkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has warned Russia that seeking a military solution in Idlib would cause \u201ccatastrophe\u201d and trigger an new influx of refugees across its borders.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey has 12 military observation posts inside Idlib aimed at monitoring a de-escalation zone and media reports have said it has sent concrete blocks over the border to reinforce them in case of an assault.<\/p>\n

\nBut analysts say Ankara could be prepared to accept a limited Russian-backed regime offensive against extremist groups, even if it leaves the question of the long-term control of the province open for now.<\/p>\n

\nAccepting control by Assad over Idlib could be a step too far for Turkey but analysts say it is also determined to preserve its increasingly tight alliance with Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT:\u00a0A blast killed at least one person in a region of north Syria controlled by Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups, a witness and a war monitor said on Saturday. The explosion in Azaz was caused by a car bomb, said the war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and hit a sit-in to demand new…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13573","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\/13573","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=13573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}