Idlib: Eighty dead and eighty thousand displaced

ARK News: More than 80 gunmen from the regime and the opposition have been killed in ongoing clashes between the two sides during the last twenty-four hours in Idlib governorate, northwestern Syria, while at least 80,000 civilians have been displaced during the past five days.

Violent clashes have been taking place since Thursday, between the regime forces on the one hand and opposition factions, the most prominent of which is the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front) on the other hand in the vicinity of the city of Ma’aret al-Numan in the southeastern countryside of Idlib.

The ongoing fighting that took place after a surprise attack by the regime forces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, left 30 people killed in the ranks of the regime and the loyalists, compared to 51 opposition fighters, the majority of whom are from the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham and allied groups.

The heightened tension has sparked a massive displacement of the population, with more than 80,000 civilians leaving their areas towards the Turkish border during the past five days, according to human rights sources, noting that the number of people displaced by intense bombing since the beginning of November has reached more than 180,000 people.

The Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front) is dominated on Idlib governorate, which is inhabited by about 3 million people, a large part of them are displaced people.

Idlib had been subject to a truce agreement at the end of August, but it has become fragile for weeks due to the recording of air strikes and clashes.

Despite the truce which declared by Moscow, the bombing and field clashes have killed more than 250 civilians since the end of August, in addition to hundreds of fighters from both sides, according to the observatory.

In October, the president of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, confirmed, on his first visit to the province since the conflict erupted in 2011, that the Idlib battle was the "basis" for resolving the war in Syria.

More than 1,300 civilians have been killed by regime and Russian attacks in the 'de-escalation' region, since September 17, 2018.

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