The Syrian regime has intensified its bombardments on the jihadist-controlled province, sparking concerns of a potential humanitarian crisis if the government of Bashar al-Assad launches a full scale offensive to retake the region. Some 180,000 people have been displaced since late April, according to the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA), and millions more could be affected by the fighting.
“An estimated 2.5 million people live in the greater Idlib area, half of whom have already been displaced at least once,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Syria stated on Thursday.
They expressed concern about reported civilian deaths and attacks on medical facilities in the province, calling on all parties to “spare civilians, including humanitarian workers and health personnel.”
Fifteen health facilities and 16 schools have been reported damaged in the fighting and “more than 120 civilians, including women and children, have been killed, while many others have been injured,” OCHA stated in their most recent report on May 10.
The UN’s humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock will brief the Security Council on Friday, AFP reported.
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) prepare to fire missiles against regime positions on May 13, 2019 in the northern part of Syria's Hama province. Photo: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP
Idlib is under a shaky ceasefire agreed on by Damascus-ally Russia and rebel-backer Turkey. Last September they agreed to a “demilitarized zone” along the frontline between regime forces and the opposition armed groups. In March, however, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an al-Qaeda affiliate, seized control from the rebel groups supported from Turkey.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu demanded on Wednesday that Damascus stop its attacks on Idlib in order to salvage drawn out efforts to form a UN-sponsored committee to draft a new Syrian constitution, an important step in the peace process.
“This aggressive attitude of the regime needs to change,” he told reporters, Hurriyet Daily News reported. “While we made progress in the establishment of the Constitutional Commission, the regime’s aggression on the ground can ruin everything.”
He confirmed that a Turkish-Russian working group on Idlib will meet soon.
Turkey is in a “very complicated situation,” Timur Akhmetov, Turkey-Russia analyst at the Russian International Affairs Council, told Rudaw English last week. For Russia, the facts on the ground in Idlib are “not sustainable” and it will ultimately step up pressure on the groups in Idlib, especially those who were behind a rocket attack on Russia’s Khmeimim air base in Syria on May 8, Akhmetov pointed out.
Turkey “who has placed its servicemen in the line of engagement just to prevent such kind of escalation,” will have to make a decision, either “be forced to cooperate with [the Syrian Arab Army] on the ground or put further pressure on HTS,” said Akhmetov.
With reporting from Majeed Gly in New York.
