Pro-Government Forces Battle Rebels in Latakia
Pro-government forces launched an attack on Wednesday to capture a strategic rebel-held hill in northwestern Syria, expanding military operations in the area despite a deal to cease fighting altogether.
A rebel official told Reuters the assault on Kabani Hill in Latakia province was supported by Russian airstrikes.
The fragile cease-fire agreement in place since Saturday does not include the Islamic State group or the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front, which has a strong presence in the northwest.
Kabani Hill overlooks the rebel-held town of Jisr al-Shughour in the neighboring province of Idlib, as well as the Ghab Plain, where opposition advances last year were viewed as a growing threat to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
“If the regime is able to capture Kabani Hill, the insurgents will be in a difficult position because this hill overlooks the Ghab Plain and Jisr al-Shughour,” said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A rebel commander in northern Syria said that since the cease-fire went into effect on Saturday, nothing has changed in Latakia, Homs and Hama.
“Battles continue in vital areas that the regime wants, and where there was no truce in the first place. There is bombardment and battles.”
U.S. Struggles With Arabic Reports on Truce Violations
The 24-hour hotline established by the U.S. State Department to monitor cease-fire violations has been called out for not staffing fluent Arabic speakers.
Reports have surfaced in recent days that Arabic speakers calling in to report the details of alleged air and artillery strikes found it hard to explain themselves fully to State Department staff.
According to the nonprofit news organization “Syria Direct,” one U.S. official mistook the frontline village of “Harbnifsah” for “Harb Bebsi,” which translates in English to “Pepsi War.”
Many activists have reportedly given up on the U.S. hotline and are instead reporting violations to the United Nations or to the opposition.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner admitted Wednesday that some of the volunteer operators did not have the Arabic skills to log the calls accurately.
“We are aware that there were some language issues and we’re working to correct those, obviously, because it’s important that we have Arabic speakers that are able to field incoming calls,” Toner said.
He added that the hotline had been set up at short notice and that the language skills of some of the operators, all of them State Department employees, “weren’t properly vetted.”
SDF Closes in on Aleppo
Syrian state media reported on Wednesday that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had captured a hill overlooking a main road in Aleppo from al-Nusra Front, in a surprise attack aimed at further encircling Syria’s northernmost city, according to the Associated Press.
The surprise offensive by the Kurdish-led, U.S.-supported SDF will most likely not be considered a breach of the cease-fire, because its main target was al-Nusra Front, one of the two groups excluded from the agreement.
Syrian state TV reported that gunmen had captured Castello Hill, “cutting supply lines for terrorists” in opposition-held neighborhoods of Aleppo city and southern parts of Aleppo province.
An opposition activist told AP that the SDF’s apparent aim was to push north of the Aleppo neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud, a predominantly Kurdish area, to reach government troops near the town of Handarat, which would nearly complete the encirclement of rebel-held neighborhoods in the city.
Kurdish forces have largely remained neutral throughout Syria’s civil war, but have occasionally clashed with rebel and insurgent groups.
Recommended Reads
- Associated Press: Syrian Villagers Hope for Calm as Russia Keeps Eye on Truce
- The Guardian: Syria’s Drought ‘Has Likely Been Its Worst in 900 Years’
- The Soufan Group: The Cessation of Hostilities in Syria
- The National: Is the Truce in Syria Just the Calm Before an Even Bigger Storm?
- Al-Arabiya: China’s Proxy War in Syria: Revealing the Role of Uighur Fighters
- CounterPunch: Syria: Holding the Line Against the Forces of Hell
- Amnesty International: Syrian and Russian Forces Have Deliberately Targeted Hospitals Near Aleppo
Top image: A Syrian soldier keeps watch near Maarzaf, about 9 miles (15km) west of Hama, Syria, Wednesday, March 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)