Nearly 80 Turkish-affiliated Syrian rebels were killed Monday (October 26th) in strikes attributed to Russia on a training camp in Idlib, Syria. This is the deadliest escalation in this region in eight months.
The airstrikes, attributed to Moscow by a rebel official and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), targeted a training camp of Faylaq Al-Cham, one of the main Syrian rebel groups backed by the Syrian Arab Republic. Turkey, neighbor of Syria. They killed 78 fighters and wounded a hundred in the region of Jabal Al-Douayli, in the north of Idlib, very close to the Turkish border, according to the director of the OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahmane. Some wounded are found “In critical condition”, and the toll could increase.
In the city of Idlib, the eponymous capital of the province, dozens of people participated in the funerals of combatants, with a collective prayer in front of lined coffins. “The balance sheet is the heaviest since the entry into force of the truce” in Idlib province, said Abdel Rahmane, while dozens of fighters were in the camp at the time of the strikes.
“We will not hesitate to reply”
In a statement, the National Liberation Front, a coalition of rebel groups affiliated with Ankara to which Faylaq Al-Cham is a member, admitted the death of a ” large number “ of its members. The coalition denounced a “Heinous crime, which is an integral part of the series of Russian crimes”, promising retaliation: “We will not hesitate to respond in such a way as to hurt the enemy”.
In the complex war in Syria, Russia is helping Bashar Al-Assad’s regime militarily and Turkey is supporting rebel groups in Idlib province, the last major jihadist and rebel stronghold in the north-west of the country. In Idlib, the two foreign powers have negotiated several ceasefires, and a truce has been held since March despite sporadic clashes.
About half of the Idlib region is under the control of jihadists from Hayat Tahrir Al-Cham (HTS), the former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda also present in adjacent territories, in the neighboring provinces of Latakia, Hama and Aleppo.
The truce decreed in March had halted yet another offensive by the Assad regime, which had managed in a few months to nibble a little more territory beyond its control. The offensive, accompanied by almost daily strikes by Syrian and Russian air forces, claimed the lives of more than 500 civilians, according to OSDH. It had displaced nearly a million inhabitants, mainly settled in informal camps on the border with Turkey. Among them, nearly 235,000 people have chosen to return, taking advantage of the truce, according to the UN.
