War Monitor: Fighting in Syria’s Idlib Province Kills Dozens

Intense fighting between pro-Assad forces and rebel groups in Syria’s Idlib Province killed at least 39 people overnight Wednesday and Thursday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The violence – which reportedly included aerial bombardments, shelling and face-to-face combat – has shattered hopes that a cease-fire announced on Sunday might take hold in Idlib, which remains largely under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, once a close affiliate of al-Qai’da. The truce was brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government backs some anti-Assad groups. Moreover, the Turkish military controls swaths of territory in northern Syria along the shared border. For its part, Moscow became the major power broker in Syria after intervening militarily in the conflict on behalf of Damascus in 2015. The fighting in Idlib has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians, leading to renewed international calls to end a war that will enter its tenth year in March.