BREAKING: Syria rebel-jihadist clashes kill dozens: monitor

Date created : 03/01/2019 - 22:48  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

A Syrian rebel fighter from the National Liberation Front (NLF) mans a position in Rashidin in Aleppo province on November 26, 2018 A Syrian rebel fighter from the National Liberation Front (NLF) mans a position in Rashidin in Aleppo province on November 26, 2018 AFP/File

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Beirut 

by Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla, France24. Disclosure: Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla dated when she was based in Jerusalem.

Clashes between jihadists and rebels raged Thursday inside Syria's last major opposition bastion for a third day, a monitor said, as the death toll mounted to more than 70 fighters.

Fighting flared Tuesday between the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and a rival rebel alliance in the northern province of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The fighting then spread to parts of the neighbouring province of Idlib the next day, and then into Hama province on Thursday, the Britain-based monitor said.

"New fronts have opened up," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, with HTS seizing more than a dozen areas in recent days.

On Wednesday, 17 HTS fighters and 16 combatants from the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front rebel alliance were killed.

That brought the overall death toll to 75 fighters from both sides, as well as six civilians, according to the Observatory.

HTS had on Monday accused NLF member Nureddine al-Zinki of killing five of its fighters, and launched an offensive against rebel positions.

HTS, which is led by the jihadists of Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, and rival rebels from the NLF have been battling each other for territory for two years.

And the last major rebel bastion of Idlib -- which includes adjacent parts of Aleppo and Hama -- has been regularly rocked by assassinations.

Since September, the stronghold has been protected from a regime offensive by a shaky deal signed by rebel backer Turkey and government ally Russia to set up a buffer zone around it.

Sparked by the brutal repression of anti-regime protests in 2011, the civil war has since killed more than 360,000 people and displaced more than half the country's population.

Syrian conflict: army sends reinforcements to Hama province

Wed Mar 22, 2017 | 12H:44  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, Beirut

The Syrian army is sending reinforcements to face a major rebel offensive in Hama province, a Syrian military source told us at the BBC and Reuters on Wednesday, as insurgents pressed an attack in a western area critically important to President Bashar al-Assad.

The assault spearheaded by jihadist fighters got under way on Tuesday and follows two attacks on Assad's seat of power in Damascus in recent days, showing the lingering threat posed by rebels even as Assad enjoys the military upper hand in the war.

The areas of Hama province targeted in the latest assault form part of the western region of Syria where Assad has shored up his rule during the six-year-long war with crucial military support from Russia and Iran.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization that monitors the war, said insurgents had captured the towns of Soran, some 20 km north of Hama city, and Khattab, some 10 km northwest of it, confirming rebel accounts.

The military source said there were clashes in both places but the situation was not yet decided, adding that the insurgents had mobilized large numbers for the assault.

"Reinforcements are now being sent" by the army, the source said. "There are fierce battles between the two sides."

The attack is being led by Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance of Islamist factions dominated by a group that was formerly al Qaeda's official affiliate in the Syrian war. Groups fighting under the Free Syrian Army banner are also taking part.

An FSA rebel commander, in an interview with the pro-opposition Orient TV, said the Hama assault had been long in the planning, and insurgents were ready for a protracted fight.

"The battle - praise God - has been prepared for a long time and all capacities have been prepared for it so that we can wage a long battle," said the FSA commander identified as a lieutenant in the Ezza Army group.

The escalation in Hama province follows two rebel assaults on government-held areas in Jobar in Damascus, launched by opposition fighters from the Eastern Ghouta, an opposition stronghold east of the capital.

State media said on Wednesday the army was waging fierce clashes with insurgents in northern Jobar.

The Ezza Army commander said the rebel attack in Hama was coordinated with the one in Damascus. He also said that more attacks would be launched "in a number of other areas".