{"id":40486,"date":"2019-08-14T21:23:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T21:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40486"},"modified":"2019-08-14T21:23:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T21:23:14","slug":"turkish-drones-start-operating-in-northern-syria-says-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40486","title":{"rendered":"Turkish drones start operating in northern Syria, says ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nNEAR SARMADA\/SYRIA: Syrian regime forces pushed further into an opposition-held bastion in the country\u2019s northwest region on Wednesday, inching toward a key town following months of deadly bombardment, a monitor said.<\/p>\n

\nAfter eight years of civil war the Idlib region, controlled by Syria\u2019s opposition, is the last major stronghold of opposition to Bashar Assad\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n

\nAirstrikes and rocket fire by the regime and its ally Russia have pounded Idlib for more than three months, killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands.<\/p>\n

\nIn the south of the stronghold, almost all residents of Khan Sheikhun \u2014 which lies on a key highway coveted by the regime \u2014 have left the town.<\/p>\n

\nThe road in question runs through Idlib, connecting regime-held Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, which was retaken by loyalists from opposition in December 2016.<\/p>\n

\nAfter a week of ground advances, Assad\u2019s forces were just a few kilometers away from the town on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cRegime forces are now 4 km from Khan Sheikhun to the west, with nothing between them and it but fields,\u201d Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.<\/p>\n

\n

\nHIGHLIGHT<\/span>
\n<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n
\n
\n

\n\u2022 Airstrikes and rocket fire by the regime and its ally Russia have pounded Idlib for more than three months, killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands.<\/p>\n

\n\u2022 Assad\u2019s forces were just a few kilometers away from the town on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nTo the east, pro-Assad forces are battling to control a hill just 6 km from the town, the head of the Britain-based Observatory said.<\/p>\n

\nAirstrikes pounded the area, with a Russian warplane killing a civilian in the area of Maaret Hurma in Idlib province, said the Observatory, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information.<\/p>\n

\nClashes on Wednesday killed 14 members of the regime forces, as well as 20 opposition fighters, it said.<\/p>\n

\nState news agency SANA on Wednesday said army troops had taken several villages from the opposition in the area west of Khan Sheikhun.<\/p>\n

\nAFP correspondents have reported seeing dozens of families flee fighting over the past few days, heading north in trucks stacked high with belongings.<\/p>\n

\nOn the highway not far from the Turkish border on Wednesday, a family was driving north in their pickup truck.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe want to save ourselves,\u201d said Abu Ahmad, 55, behind the wheel on the road near the town of Sarmada.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe left our sheep, we left our homes, and we fled,\u201d he said, dressed in a long white robe.<\/p>\n

\nSitting beside him, his wife Umm Ahmad said they had left almost everything behind.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur land is spilling with grapes and figs,\u201d she said of the family farm near the town of Maaret Al-Noman.<\/p>\n

\nA buffer zone deal brokered by Russia and Turkey last year was supposed to protect the Idlib region\u2019s 3 million inhabitants from an all-out regime offensive, but it was never fully implemented.<\/p>\n

\nAn alliance led by fighters from Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) took full control of the anti-Assad stronghold in May.<\/p>\n

\nRegime and Russian airstrikes and shelling since late April have killed 820 civilians, according to the Observatory.<\/p>\n

\nThe UN says dozens of health centers as well as schools have been targeted.<\/p>\n

\nHumanitarian workers have warned that any full-blown ground attack on Idlib would cause one of the worst humanitarian disasters of Syria\u2019s war.<\/p>\n

\nThe conflict has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions at home and abroad since starting with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests in 2011.<\/p>\n

\nRegime forces have taken back large parts of the country from opposition fighters and militants with Russian military backing since 2015.<\/p>\n

\nBut Idlib, nearby areas controlled by the Turkey-backed opposition, and a large swathe of the northeast held by Kurds remain beyond its reach.<\/p>\n

\nAnalyst Nawar Oliver said that, with the ongoing airstrikes and ground advances, regime forces aimed not only to retake the road running through Idlib, but also pile pressure on HTS and allied fighters.<\/p>\n

\nRegime forces \u201cwon\u2019t hesitate to bite off or control everything they can,\u201d said Oliver, an expert at the Turkey-based Omran Center for Strategic Studies.<\/p>\n

\nThey want to \u201cimpose a new reality on the region, the rebels, and their Turkish ally, and to use it as a tool or weapon in any current or future negotiations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEAR SARMADA\/SYRIA: Syrian regime forces pushed further into an opposition-held bastion in the country\u2019s northwest region on Wednesday, inching toward a key town following months of deadly bombardment, a monitor said. After eight years of civil war the Idlib region, controlled by Syria\u2019s opposition, is the last major stronghold of opposition to Bashar Assad\u2019s regime.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40486","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\/40486","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=40486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}