Islamist Rebel Groups Launch Offensive Against Government Forces in Idlib
Several Islamist rebel groups, including the Syrian al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, launched a new multi-pronged offensive against government forces in Idlib province, AP reports.
The main target of the campaign appears to be the town of Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib province.
Jisr al-Shughour as well as several towns and military facilities are in government hands. However, the regime’s grip on the province looks increasingly unstable.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, rebels have seized control of five checkpoints since the offensive began, including two near Jisr al-Shughour. Heavy fighting erupted outside the town as well as in a sprawling agricultural plain south of the town, and regime forces are bombarding suspected rebel positions.
“The operation keeps the pressure on beleaguered government forces in the area just weeks after the rebels captured Idlib city, the provincial capital,” AP writes.
Over the past several weeks, Assad’s forces lost Idlib to the opposition – the second provincial capital to fall. In the south, meanwhile, the government is also gradually losing ground to moderate rebels, who seized a key border crossing with Jordan and the ancient town of Bosra al-Sham earlier this month.
U.S.-Led Coalition Strikes Have Killed Over 2,000 People in Syria
Some 2,079 people, including 66 civilians, have died as a result of U.S.-led coalition strikes against Islamist State militants that began in Syria last September, Reuters reports.
The Islamic State is the largest jihadist group in Syria, controlling large swathes of territory in the east and north of the country.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the majority of deaths – 1,922 – occurred in members of the Islamic State. Among the Observatory’s documented deaths were 90 members of Jabhat al-Nusra.
Ten of the civilian deaths were children and six were women.
Since the U.S. and a coalition of Arab countries began strikes against the Islamic State on September 23 last year, activists and civilians have raised concerns about civilian casualties as a result of the strikes – particularly because ISIS has entrenched itself in residential areas.
The U.S. has said that it takes the reports of civilian casualties seriously and that a process exists to investigate the claims.
Syria’s death toll has now risen to 210,060, nearly half of them civilians, but the real figure is most likely much higher, the Observatory reported in February.
Exact death tolls have been difficult to verify, but the Observatory is widely cited as a source of conflict statistics. The U.N. stopped calculating the death toll in January last year.
U.S.-Led Coalition Strikes Have Killed Over 2,000 People in Syria
Some 2,079 people, including 66 civilians, have died as a result of U.S.-led coalition strikes against Islamist State militants that began in Syria last September, Reuters reports.
The Islamic State is the largest jihadist group in Syria, controlling large swathes of territory in the east and north of the country.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the majority of deaths – 1,922 – occurred in members of the Islamic State. Among the Observatory’s documented deaths were 90 members of Jabhat al-Nusra.
Ten of the civilian deaths were children and six were women.
Since the U.S. and a coalition of Arab countries began strikes against the Islamic State on September 23 last year, activists and civilians have raised concerns about civilian casualties as a result of the strikes – particularly because ISIS has entrenched itself in residential areas.
The U.S. has said that it takes the reports of civilian casualties seriously and that a process exists to investigate the claims.
Syria’s death toll has now risen to 210,060, nearly half of them civilians, but the real figure is most likely much higher, the Observatory reported in February.
Exact death tolls have been difficult to verify, but the Observatory is widely cited as a source of conflict statistics. The U.N. stopped calculating the death toll in January last year.
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Photo Courtesy of AP Images