The aerial video, shot on Tuesday December 24, shows a completely frozen ghost town, an expanse of concrete bathed in dead silence. Last week, like a Caribbean city approaching a cyclone, Maarat Al-Nouman, a trading hub in northwestern Syria, was emptied of its people. In a matter of days, tens of thousands of people fled, piling up in trucks and cars, filled to the brim with mattresses, blankets and kitchen utensils.
The exodus resulted from the advance of government troops in the south of Idlib province, the last bastion of the anti-Assad insurgency. In two weeks, the bombings on this region, dominated by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Cham (HTC), displaced nearly 130,000 people, according to the United Nations (UN), and caused the death of a hundred civilians , according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On Wednesday, December 25, loyalist troops, which captured 40 villages, were only 4 kilometers from Maarat Al-Nouman and also threatened the nearby town of Saraqeb, a little further north.
This offensive is part of the vast reconquest movement started by the Damascus regime at the end of 2016, with the resumption of East Aleppo. The Syrian government, which has won victories over the rebellion since that date, now controls more than 70% of the territory. In October, while on the Idlib front, a first since the uprising began in 2011, President Bashar Al-Assad had reaffirmed his determination to retake this region, where a fragile truce then reigned.
Opening up Aleppo
This lull had been decreed after a first offensive, between April and August, which had allowed the regime to seize Khan Cheikhoun. The new operation, which is an extension, aims to dislodge the rebels from the segment of the M5 motorway, a strategic axis between the north and the south of the country, which passes through the localities of Saraqeb and Maarat Al-Nouman . In doing so, the Syrian government hopes to open up Aleppo, the big city of North Syria, by connecting it again directly to Damascus, the capital.
The reopening of the M5 to traffic was included in the Idlib demilitarization agreement, concluded on the shores of the Black Sea in Sochi, in September 2018, between Turkey, support of the insurgents, and Russia, protector of Damascus.
But the compromise, which also included a halt to the bombing and a withdrawal of the HTC from a band 15 to 20 km wide along the front, was violated by all parties. Ankara failed to neutralize the jihadist group, while Moscow did not really seek to curb the appetite for regaining the regime.
