BEIRUT (AP) – Syrian insurgent groups launched a counteroffensive Thursday against government forces advancing toward a major rebel-held air base in the country’s northwest, capturing several villages and taking prisoners, opposition groups said.
State media said the attack was repelled.
The push by several factions, including the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, started overnight. By Thursday morning, it had slowed the government offensive toward the Abu Zuhour air base that has been held by rebels since 2015.
FILE – In this file photo provided Wednesday Jan. 3, 2018 by the Syrian anti-government activist group, Edlib Media Center, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows members of the Syrian civil defense known as the White Helmets, gathering at a street which was attacked by Russian airstrikes, in Maarat al-Nuaman, Syria. Just weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in Syria, Russian military outposts in the country have come under rebel attacks that are challenging Moscow’s gains. The incursions have raised doubts both about the sustainability of the Syrian government’s recent victories and Moscow’s ability to protect its assets in the country. (Edlib Media Center via AP, File)
Recapturing the air base has been a key government goal since late October and Syrian forces have captured some 160 villages since first launched the offensive. The operations also aim to secure the road linking the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest.
The fighting has displaced an estimated 100,000 people who have fled north toward safer areas close to the border with Turkey.
Idlib province, the largest remaining rebel-held territory in Syria, is packed with civilians, many of whom have fled there from fighting in other areas across Syria.
A statement Thursday by the International Rescue Committee said it received hundreds of newly displaced people from the southeast of the province in the past few days, joining thousands who fled over the past month.
Many of the newly displaced brought only the belongings they could carry, the committee said, adding that one mother of two twin babies recounted the initial panic of fleeing the airstrikes. The woman was so frightened, she initially left one of her children behind.
“We couldn’t think properly. The fear affected our brains,” the IRC quoted her as saying. The baby was unharmed, she added.
The IRC said nearly two thirds of the displaced in Idlib are living in makeshift tents that are unable to withstand winter conditions while others live in abandoned or partially-build homes that have well water but no toilets.
The Aamaq media arm of the extremist Islamic State group reported Thursday that its fighters are clashing with Syrian troops on the eastern edges of Idlib, and released a video purporting to show four soldiers it claimed to have captured.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed insurgents have retaken several villages from government troops and said 11 pro-government fighters were captured. The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said 16 insurgents were killed in the fighting but didn’t have a figure for government troops.
The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said troops repelled the attack, adding that the militants suffered losses.
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