Regime forces advance towards key town in northwest Syria

Regime fighters push further into a jihadist-run bastion in northwest Syria, inching towards a key town after months of deadly bombardment, a monitor says.

Eight years into Syria’s civil war, the jihadist-run region of Idlib is the last major stronghold of opposition to President Bashar Assad’s regime. Airstrikes and rocket fire by the regime and its ally Russia have pounded Idlib for more than three months, killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands. In the south of the stronghold, almost all residents of Khan Sheikhun — which lies on a key highway coveted by the regime — have left the town.

The road in question runs through Idlib, connecting government-held Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, which was retaken by loyalists from rebels in December 2016.

After a week of ground advances, Assad’s fighters are just a few kilometers away from the town on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

“Regime forces are now four kilometers (2.5 miles) from Khan Sheikhun to the west, with nothing between them and it but fields,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman says. To the east, pro-Assad fighters are battling to control a hill just six kilometers (less than four miles) from the town, he adds. Clashes on Wednesday kill 14 regime forces, as well as 20 jihadists and seven allied rebels, he says.

— AFP