Of all the offensives launched by the Syrian government against the strongholds of the rebellion in recent years, the one currently targeting the province of Idlib, the last possession of the anti-Assad, is the most laborious. This region, located in the northwest corner of Syria, under the thumb of the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Cham (HTC), offers fierce resistance to pro-government forces. Despite Russian air support, the regular army and the militias supporting it have lost hundreds of men in the fighting, which began in April 2019.
And yet, slowly but surely, the loyalists are advancing, advancing through the south of the province, along the M5 motorway, connecting Damascus to Aleppo. After having captured the city of Khan Cheikhoun in August – a phase which was followed by a cease-fire of a few weeks – they entered Tuesday, January 28, in Maarat Al-Nouman, the second most populous city in the governorate after Idlib. This victory was obtained at the cost of very intensive shelling, in accordance with the scorched earth tactics, implemented by Damascus and Moscow in each of their reconquest operations.
Nearly 350,000 people, mostly women and children, have been thrown on the exodus routes since December
The bombings, targeting both the defense lines of HTC and rebel factions fighting alongside it and the infrastructure in the region, caused dozens of civilian casualties and emptied Maarat Al-Nouman and surrounding villages of the entire their population. Nearly 350,000 people, mostly women and children, have been thrown on the exodus routes since December, which is in addition to the 300,000 displaced in the spring and summer. All have found refuge in the north of the region, in makeshift camps near the border with Turkey, an area that Russian and Syrian planes most often avoid.
Appetite for reconquest
For opponents of Assad’s regime, the loss of Maarat Al-Nouman has a particularly bitter taste. Despite the chaos of war, its inhabitants have always stood out for their ardor in defending their freedom and for their attachment to the initial vein of the popular and moderate revolution.
The city demonstrated both against the central government, which it managed to get rid of in October 2012, with the reinforcement of the fighters of the Free Syrian Army, as well as against the extremists of the Al-Nosra Front, the Syrian branch of Al- Qaida, dominant force in the city from 2016, which orchestrated the creation of HTC a year later. For standing up against Damascus and contradicting his narrative, presenting all the insurgents as dangerous fundamentalists, Maarat Al-Nouman was punished without respite, with missiles, bombs and explosive barrels.
