Syrian government forces reached the outskirts of a key rebel-held town on Sunday, part of a weekslong offensive into the country's last rebel stronghold, state media and opposition activists said.
Over the past two days, Syrian troops captured at least six villages near the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan in the northwestern province of Idlib. That brought them closer to retaking a critical north-south highway that passes through the town. It's been held by the rebels since 2012.
Syrian President Bashar Assad's government has retaken control of most of the country from rebel fighters, largely because of blanket air support from Russia, which helped turn the tide in the nearly 9-year civil war.
Idlib province is dominated by al-Qaida-linked militants. It’s also home to 3 million civilians, and the United Nations has warned of the growing risk of a humanitarian catastrophe along the Turkish border. The government offensive in Idlib province has led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, many of them to areas close to the border with Turkey.
According to opposition activists and paramedics, Maaret al-Numan is now almost empty as a result of the intense bombardment in recent weeks. Hadi Abdullah, an opposition activist based in Idlib, said Syrian warplanes and helicopter gunships were pounding areas near Maaret al-Numan. Opposition activists said government forces are now less than a kilometer (mile) away from the town.
Syrian state TV said government forces captured the village of Ghadqa near Maaret al-Numan early Sunday. Among the six nearby villages captured over the past two days were Tel Manas and Maarshamarin, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state news agency SANA.
In August, Syrian troops captured another town that the highway passes through, Khan Sheikhoun, If Syrian troops capture Maaret al-Numan, their next target is likely to be Saraqeb, which would become the last major town on the M5 highway outside government control.
Opening the highway would reduce travel time between Damascus and Aleppo by two hours, since drivers now must take a longer desert road.
BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.
The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child -- the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children -- was also brought with them.
As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said.
Although the pace of repatriations has picked up -- neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens -- many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.
The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.
Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected IS members are housed.
“The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement.
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Women shop in the marketplace at al-Hol camp, home to families of Islamic State fighters, in Hasakeh province, Syria, on March 31, 2019. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
