In the midst of the storm of wind and rain that plagues the middle East, the 235,000 civilians have fled in the last two weeks of the rebel province of Idlib before the offensive of the government troops and syrian with the support of the Russian aircraft. Another 400,000 escaped between April and October in the first battle against the redoubt end of the opposition, where half of its three million people already were displaced by force from other regions of Syria over almost nine years of war. For many of those who now take to the roads, it is a tragedy known. This is not the first time they are undertaking an exodus with no destination. The United nations realizes that in the makeshift camps that are installed on flooded soils near the border with Turkey, there is “urgent need of temporary shelter, food, medicines, fuel and all kinds of means to deal with the winter.”
“The bad weather exacerbated the vulnerable situation of women, elderly and children,” says the Office for the Coordination Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the UN. Represent precisely the 80% of those expelled in the latest wave of fighting that has become Maaret al-Numan (80,000 inhabitants) in ghost town.
Deployment of forces in Syria
syrian Government and allies
Democratic Forces and Syrian
(a militia of kurdish-Arabic)
Turkish Forces and rebel allies
Groups related to Al Qaeda
TURKEY
Qamishli
Manbij
Hasaka
Idlib
Raqa
Aleppo
IRAQ
Maaret
al-Numan
Deir Ezzor
SYRIA
Palmira
Abu Kamal
lebanon
This city is the main goal of the forces of Assad.
Damascus
Deraa
JORDAN
100 km
Source: Liveuamap and own elaboration.
THE COUNTRY
Deployment of forces in Syria
syrian Government and allies
Democratic Forces and Syrian
(a militia of kurdish-Arabic)
Turkish Forces and rebel allies
Groups related to Al Qaeda
TURKEY
Qamishli
Manbij
Hasaka
Idlib
Raqa
Aleppo
IRAQ
Maaret
al-Numan
Deir Ezzor
SYRIA
Palmira
Abu Kamal
lebanon
This city is the main goal of the forces of Assad.
Damascus
Deraa
JORDAN
100 km
Source: Liveuamap and own elaboration.
THE COUNTRY
Deployment of forces in Syria
syrian Government
, and allies
TURKEY
Forces
Democratic Syrian
(a militia of kurdish-Arabic)
Qamishli
Manbij
Hasaka
Turkish Forces
and rebel allies
Idlib
Raqa
Aleppo
Maaret
al-Numan
Deir Ezzor
related Groups
Al Qaeda
SYRIA
Palmira
This city is the main goal of the forces of Assad.
Abu Kamal
lebanon
IRAQ
Damascus
Deraa
JORDAN
100 km
Source: Liveuamap and own elaboration.
THE COUNTRY
“The escalation of violence of the regime and its allies in the northwest of Syria must cease, as well as the indiscriminate bombing against civilians and on the roads to flee,” warned the Sunday, the office of the chief of the diplomacy of the EU, Josep Borrell. The White House already warned on Thursday that put an end to the “carnage” triggered by Damascus and Moscow, which also included to Tehran. Russia and China, meanwhile, have vetoed a Security Council resolution to send humanitarian aid from Turkey to the civilian population of the north of Syria.
The Turkish Government assured that it will not withdraw from any of its 12 military posts of observation in Idlib —as agreed with Russia in the ceasefire agreement of September, 2018—, despite the fact that one of those positions is fenced by the troops of Damascus. Both Syria and Russia to justify its offensive in the eradication of “terrorist groups” that dominate the province.
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The new offensive in syria against the last rebel stronghold to force the escape of 80,000 civilians The price of peace Russian in Syria
the escalation of The war there has been a shift in the balance of forces in a front semiestancado, where they had found their last trench, a nebula of armed islamist groups after having capitulated to the Army in other regions. The militia jihadist Tahrir al Sham (the old Front al Nusra, an affiliate syria Al-Qaeda) was made nine months ago with the hegemony, despite the support offered by Turkey to the other forces, rebels and islamist salafists.
The syrian troops and their allies russians have been found in Idlib and surrounding areas of the provinces of Lataquia (west) and Aleppo (west) unprecedented strength. Most of the 20,000 insurgents fighting in Idlib are hardened veterans of years of civil fighting.
The NGO International Rescue Committee has given the voice of alarm at the rampant exodus of population in Idlib, whose magnitude is hto tripled in just a week. This humanitarian organization, estimated that if not reset immediately cease-fire, more than 400,000 civilians will be displaced by the offensive in progress.
In its largest military advance for more than three months, the troops loyal to president Bashar al-Assad have seized a dozen villages in the south of the last rebel province, and are at the gates of the strategic city of Maaret al-Numan. Aerial bombing syrians and russians have caused the death of a hundred civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO that has informants on the ground.
Turkey —which already plays host to 3.7 million syrian refugees— fear a new wave of displaced people from Idlib, and the president Assad has promised to re-conquer at any price the rebel stronghold. The collision course of their conflicting interests it seems now unstoppable.
The agreement, which presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan were sealed in Sochi last year to contain the tension in Idlib jumps in to pieces with each offense. The president turk has sent emissaries to the Kremlin to try to reinstate the ceasefire. “We are assisting the city of Idlib to a crisis of displaced civilians that overlaps another crisis of displaced previous one”, concludes pessimistic the spokesman of the OCHA, David Swanson. Hostilities continue unabated, despite the chorus of international warnings and the heart-wrenching images coming in from an exodus without end in Syria.
