Syrian government forces seized ground from insurgents in
northwestern Syria on Thursday, sources on both sides said, building on
advances since the military declared an end to a brief ceasefire earlier this
week.
The humanitarian adviser to the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria
said the new upsurge in violence in the northwest threatened the lives of
millions after more than 500 civilians were killed since late April.
The Russian-backed army
operations resumed on Monday after the government accused neighboring Turkey,
which backs some rebel groups in the area, of not abiding by commitments in the
truce. The army’s capture of al-Sakhr in northern Hama province on Thursday
followed the taking of two villages on Wednesday.
A rebel commander said
government forces had been able to advance in the northern Hama area due to
heavy air and artillery strikes. “The situation is difficult but recovering the
positions we lost is not impossible and we will work on that,” Colonel Mustafa
Bakour of the Jaish al-Izza rebel group told Reuters by text message.
Assad’s side has struggled to
make significant gains in more than three months of military operations in the
northwest, the last major foothold of rebel groups in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights, which monitors the eight-year-old conflict, said the advances by
Assad’s side over the last two days were its most significant since June,
noting that the army was closing in on three rebel-held towns.
Observatory Director Rami
Abdulrahman said 64 combatants had been killed in the last two days, 40 of them
rebels and two dozen government fighters.
The most powerful insurgent
group, the jihadist Tahrir al-Sham, said dozens of government fighters had been
killed in an attack on the two villages seized on Wednesday.
“Every inch of our liberated
land will cost (Assad’s side) dearly,” it said in a statement.
Air strikes and bombardment
of the rebel-held area by the Syrian government and Russian forces have
uprooted hundreds of thousands of people.
Specter of new refugee exodus
- UN
The United Nations warned
that the fresh violence threatens the lives of millions and potentially could
drive hundreds of thousands more civilians from their homes.
“All this is happening at the
doorstep of Turkey, so there is a threat for Turkey, a direct impact with
massive displacement of people toward the north, heading toward Turkey and of
course a threat for the rest of Europe,” said Panos Moumtzis, U.N. humanitarian
coordinator for Syria’s crisis.
“We have so far 39 health
facilities, 50 schools, water points, markets, bakeries, and multiple civilian
neighborhoods who have received a direct hit,” he told reporters in Geneva.
The Syrian government had
said it would agree to the ceasefire on condition militants fulfilled a
Russian-Turkish deal last year which aimed to create a demilitarized zone.
Though Turkey-backed rebel
factions operate in Idlib province in the northwest, the dominant force there
is the jihadist Tahrir al-Sham group, formerly known as the Nusra Front.
British foreign minister Dominic Raab criticized Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad for the resumption of operations. “Appalled by
situation in Idlib and how Assad backed by Russia revoked a ‘conditional’
ceasefire just days after announcing it - a repeated pattern of behavior,” Raab
said on Twitter.
“Attacks on civilian targets
are a violation of international humanitarian law – this must stop.”
U.N. Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres said earlier this month the United Nations would investigate
attacks on U.N.-supported facilities and other humanitarian sites in the
northwest after two-thirds of the Security Council pushed for an inquiry.
Russia and Syria have said
their forces are not targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure and
questioned the sources used by the United Nations to verify attacks.