Iraq News Now

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 UN 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, UN 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 Secretary 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.”

UN

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said earlier this month the United Nations

would investigate attacks on UN-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.