Syrian troops surround rebel-held town on 3 sides

Syrian government forces enveloped three sides of a key rebel-held town in the country's northwest, and were also advancing against insurgent positions west of the city of Aleppo, state media and opposition activists said Tuesday.

The fresh push came hours before the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, was scheduled to arrive in the capital Damascus to meet with officials.

Syrian government forces have been on the offensive for more than a month in the northwestern Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in the country. But in recent days, the government captured more than a dozen villages in the area as the insurgents' defenses began to crumble. Al-Qaida linked rebels control much of Idlib province and small parts of the adjacent area in Aleppo.

This Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, photo, released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian army soldiers flash the victory sign as they stand on their tank in western rural Aleppo, Syria. Syrian government forces pressed in their offensive Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020, closing in on a major rebel stronghold in the northwestern province of Idlib and marching against insurgents west of Aleppo, Syria's largest city, state media and opposition activists said Tuesday. (SANA via AP)

The main target of the government offensive under the cover of intense airstrikes was the strategic rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan, which sits on the highway linking Damascus with Aleppo. Syrian troops were keeping a road leading west out of the town open, apparently to give insurgents a chance to withdraw.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Syrian troops had tightened their grip on the town early Tuesday by capturing the nearby village of Kfar Roummah. The village lies to the southwest. Syrian state TV confirmed that government forces are now inside.

Further north, government forces began an offensive on the western suburbs of Aleppo in an attempt to push insurgents away from Syria's largest city. Rebels have rained artillery and mortar shells down on Aleppo in recent days.

This Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, photo, released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian army soldiers chant slogans as they hold their rifles, in western rural Aleppo, Syria. Syrian government forces pressed in their offensive Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020, closing in on a major rebel stronghold in the northwestern province of Idlib and marching against insurgents west of Aleppo, Syria's largest city, state media and opposition activists said Tuesday. (SANA via AP)

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. The province home to 3 million civilians, and the U.N. has warned of the growing risk of a humanitarian catastrophe along the Turkish border.

The push in Maaret al-Numan and west of Aleppo brought government forces closer to retaking a critical north-south highway that passes through the town, held by rebels since 2012.

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.

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)