Oct. 9th, 2017
Welcome to our weekly summary of Syria Deeply’s top coverage of the crisis in Syria.
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Turkey Enters Idlib: Turkish troops moved into Idlib province on Sunday in an effort to enforce a de-escalation zone in the province dominated by al-Qaida-linked militants, according to a Turkish military statement released Monday.
Turkish forces were deployed to carry out “reconnaissance activities” in the area, including the creation of “observation points” in the northwestern province, according to the Associated Press.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the start of the “serious” military operation in Idlib on Saturday, adding that Turkish-backed Syrian rebels affiliated with the Free Syrian Army are leading the campaign. The following day, Erdogan said Turkish troops would also be deployed in the province to support opposition forces.
On Saturday, bulldozers dismantled border walls to allow for the passage of military vehicles. Reuters reported on Sunday that al-Qaida-linked Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham militants escorted Turkish forces who are part of a military reconnaissance team to the area, where they “scouted” ahead of a planned deployment.
Battles Against ISIS: Pro-government forces allegedly encircled the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in the city of al-Mayadeen on Sunday, as U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) prepare to launch the final stage of the battle against ISIS in Raqqa.
“Units of our armed forces with the allied forces continue their advance on a number of fronts and axes in Deir al-Zor [Ezzor] and its countryside … and encircle Daesh terrorists in the city of al-Mayadin,” an unnamed military source told Reuters, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Losing al-Mayadeen, which is on the western banks of the Euphrates river, would be a big blow to the militant group.
Pro-government forces advanced to within 7 miles (10km) of al-Mayadeen last week, and by Friday reportedly entered the militants stronghold and seized control of several buildings with support from Russian airstrikes, according to AFP. However, on Sunday ISIS militants repelled pro-regime advances.
In Raqqa, the SDF has captured around 90 percent of the city and is advancing from the city’s north and east in an attempt to close in on ISIS militants holed up in a pocket of territory near the city center.
If the forces advancing from the north link up with those moving in from the east, then the SDF can begin its final push in Raqqa, which will focus on areas around Raqqa’s national hospital, the nearby football stadium and surrounding residential neighborhoods, an SDF commander told AFP.
New Report of Sarin Attack: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has collected evidence that sarin nerve agent was used in an attack on the rebel-held village of Latamneh in northern Syria, just five days before the major chemical attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun.
“Analysis of samples collected (by the OPCW) … relates to an incident that took place again in the northern part of Syria on the 30th of March this year,” Ahmet Uzumcu, the head of the OPCW, said in an interview with AFP. “The results prove the existence of sarin.”
The attack allegedly wounded 50 people, he said, adding that there were no immediate reports of any deaths. These findings disprove the claim that the April attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, which killed at least 87 people, was the first time sarin had been used since the 2013 gas attack on the suburbs of Damascus.
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GENEVA (Reuters) – Syria is in the throes of its worst fighting since the battle for eastern Aleppo last year, with heavy air strikes causing hundreds of civilian casualties, aid agencies said on Thursday.
Hospitals, schools and people fleeing violence have been “targeted by direct air strikes” that may amount to war crimes, the United Nations said, without apportioning blame.
Russia and a U.S.-led coalition are carrying out separate air strikes in Syria ostensibly aimed at defeating Islamic State militants.
“September was the deadliest month of 2017 for civilians with daily reports of attacks on residential areas resulting in hundreds of conflict-related deaths and injuries,” U.N. regional humanitarian coordinator Panos Moumtzis said in a statement.
Air strikes killed dozens this week in Raqqa, where 8,000 people remain trapped, and at least 149 people, mostly women and children, in residential areas of rebel-dominated Idlib province in Syria’s northwest in the last 12 days of September, he said.
Explosions in Damascus killed 20 people and civilian casualties were also reported in rural areas around the Syrian capital and in Hama, Aleppo and Deir al-Zor, Moumtzis said, again without saying who was responsible.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement that up to 10 hospitals were reported to have been damaged in the past 10 days.
“We have seen a number of hospitals being targeted, we got very worrying reports and converging reports about hospitals, schools, civilian infrastructure being targeted,” Robert Mardini, ICRC regional director for the Middle East, told Reuters in an interview in his Geneva office.
“And of course this is outrageous, unacceptable,” he said, adding that damage to Sham hospital in Idlib alone had cut off half a million people from access to health care.
The ICRC voiced alarm that violence was occurring in many of the “de-escalation” areas including Idlib, rural Hama and eastern Ghouta. “Taken together, these are the worst levels of violence since the battle for Aleppo in 2016,” it said.
“Hundreds of civilians killed is certainly a very conservative figure,” Mardini said. “We see a very strong correlation between the escalation and the intensification in the fighting on one hand and the human cost of this conflict, the attacks on health facilities and civilian infrastructure.”
Syria’s six-year-old civil war pits President Bashar al-Assad’s government supported by Russia and Iran against a myriad number of rebel factions, some Western-backed, and Islamist militant groups.
Military jets believed to be Russian killed at least 60 civilians trying to flee heavy fighting in the oil-rich Deir al-Zor province when their small boats were targeted as they sought to cross the Euphrates River, opposition activists, former residents and a war monitor said late on Wednesday.
The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria has carried out air strikes that have also caused civilian casualties, which it says it goes to great lengths to avoid.
“The point here is not to point fingers,” Mardini said, declining to identify suspected perpetrators of deadly strikes.
“What should be non-negotiable is the respect for the laws of war, everywhere in Syria. This is absolutely critical today.”
(Additional reporting by Tom Miles; editing by Mark Heinrich)
