Syria reopens highway linking largest cities after 8 years

The highway that links the Syrian capital with the northern city of Aleppo is open for public use for the first time in nearly eight years after government forces recently captured parts of it that had been held by insurgents, the transportation minister said Saturday.

The reopening of the M5 highway came as another Turkish soldier was killed in northwestern Syria in shelling by government forces, according to Turkish state media.

The full control of the highway known as the M5 by government forces earlier this month marked one of the biggest prizes for President Bashar Assad in the nearly nine-year conflict.

Turkish backed rebel fighters fire a howitzer toward Syrian government's forces positions near the village of Neirab in Idlib province, Syria, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020. Two Turkish soldiers were killed Thursday by an airstrike in northwestern Syria, according to Turkey's Defense Ministry, following a large-scale attack by Ankara-backed opposition forces that targeted Syrian government troops. (AP PhotoGhaith Alsayed)

Transport Minister Ali Hammoud said in remarks carried by state media that the highway is open to the public, adding that work has started on the railway leading to Aleppo and it should return to business in the coming months.

The opening of the highway reduces the trip between Damascus and Aleppo by about 90 kilometers (56 miles) compared to the desert road that had been in use over the past years, state news agency SANA said.

The M5 is a strategic highway that starts in southern Syria, near the border with Jordan, and runs all the way north to the city of Aleppo near the Turkish border.

Turkish backed rebel fighters take positions near the village of Neirab in Idlib province, Syria, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020. Two Turkish soldiers were killed Thursday by an airstrike in northwestern Syria, according to Turkey's Defense Ministry, following a large-scale attack by Ankara-backed opposition forces that targeted Syrian government troops. (AP PhotoGhaith Alsayed)

The 450-kilometer (280-mile) highway links the country's four largest cities and population centers: Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo, cutting through Idlib province.

Syrian government forces have been on the offensive in Idlib and parts of Aleppo province, the last remaining rebel stronghold in the country, since early December capturing dozens of towns and villages from insurgents. The Russian-backed offensive has also displaced more than 900,000 people forcing many of them to leave to area close to the border with Turkey.

Assad gradually lost control of the M5 starting in 2012, when various rebel groups fighting to topple him began seizing parts of the country. In recent years, Syrian troops have been regaining segments of the highway from southern Syria to the suburbs of Damascus all the way to Aleppo.

Turkish military convoy drives in Idlib province, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. A Turkish soldier was killed in Syria's northwest Idlib province, state-run Anadolu news agency reported Saturday. (AP PhotoGhaith Alsayed)

Also on Saturday, an unnamed Syrian military official issued a warning to Turkey that orders have been given to the country's air defense units to open fire on warplanes that violate Syria's airspace.

A Turkish soldier was killed in Syria’s Idlib province, state-run Anadolu news agency reported Saturday. He was at least the 16th member of the Turkish military to die in February during an offensive by Syrian government forces.

Citing a statement from the governor of Turkey’s Gaziantep, the soldier’s home province, Anadolu said he was killed by “a bomb dropped by regime forces.” It named him as a member of a tank unit.

Turkish military convoy drives in Idlib province, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. A Turkish soldier was killed in Syria's northwest Idlib province, state-run Anadolu news agency reported Saturday. (AP PhotoGhaith Alsayed)

The Turkish Defense Ministry said 21 “regime targets” were destroyed in response to the soldier’s death.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu about Idlib on Saturday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said, without providing further details. Russia is the main backer of Assad and its air force has been instrumental in the regime's military success.

Turkey and Russia support rival groups of the Syrian conflict and Ankara has sent thousands of troops into Idlib in recent weeks.

Turkish military convoy drives in Idlib province, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. A Turkish soldier was killed in Syria's northwest Idlib province, state-run Anadolu news agency reported Saturday. (AP PhotoGhaith Alsayed)

Syrian opposition activists reported airstrikes on rebel-held villages leaving at least one civilian, a child, dead.

On Friday, Turkey's president urged Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone call to “restrain” the Syrian government and halt the humanitarian crisis unfolding in northwestern Syria where the Syrian military offensive has concentrated.

Turkish military convoy drives in Idlib province, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. A Turkish soldier was killed in Syria's northwest Idlib province, state-run Anadolu news agency reported Saturday. (AP PhotoGhaith Alsayed)

Syrian rebel fighter prays as a Turkish military convoy stops in Idlib province, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. A Turkish soldier was killed in Syria's northwest Idlib province, state-run Anadolu news agency reported Saturday. (AP PhotoGhaith Alsayed)

Turkish military convoy stops in Idlib province, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. A Turkish soldier was killed in Syria's northwest Idlib province, state-run Anadolu news agency reported Saturday. (AP PhotoGhaith Alsayed)

BEIRUT (AP) — Amnesty International said Wednesday it has documented widespread abuses, including torture and deprivation of medical care, in detention facilities holding thousands of suspected Islamic State members and their relatives in northeast Syria.

The centers and camps hold about 56,000 people — the majority of them children and teens — and 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.

What to do with the suspected IS fighters and their families has become an intractable issue. Many countries whose citizens traveled to Syria to join IS have been reluctant to repatriate them, as have local communities in Syria.

"People held in this system are facing large-scale violations of their rights, some of which amount to war crimes,” Nicolette Waldman, Amnesty’s senior crisis advisor, told journalists.

The United States is also responsible for the alleged violations because it played a key role in establishing and maintaining the detention system, providing hundreds of millions of dollars to the SDF and affiliated forces and regularly interrogating detainees, Waldman said.

The human rights group interviewed 126 people accused of IS affiliation currently or formerly detained, along with representatives of the local administration and aid workers.

The Amnesty report said the vast majority of detainees are being held “indefinitely, without charge or trial, in violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” while those who have been tried were, in many cases, convicted on the basis of confessions extracted under torture.

The alleged abuses include “beating, stress positions, drowning, electric shocks and gender-based violence,” including a male detainee who said he and others had been sodomized with broomsticks by guards, the report said. Detainees were also deprived of food, water and medical care and subjected to extreme cold and heat in overcrowded cells, with some allegedly dying of suffocation, it said.

The report added that many of the approximately 14,500 women and 30,000 children held had been victims of human trafficking, including women who were forced to marry IS fighters and minors who were forcibly recruited by the group, and that local authorities had failed to set up a “mechanism to identify trafficking victims” and protect them.

The report also criticized the practice of forcibly separating adolescent boys — some as young as 11 or 12 — from their mothers and placing them in rehabilitation centers indefinitely.

Amnesty called on local authorities, the U.S. government and other allies to bring the detention system into compliance with international law and urged the United Nations to work with them to establish a screening process to release all who are not “reasonably suspected” of having committed a serious crime.

The Autonomous Authorities of the North and East Syria Region, the civilian administration affiliated with the SDF, wrote in response to the Amnesty findings that it had not received any official complaints regarding torture in detention facilities and “if this happened, they are individual acts.”

The administration said it would take action against employees who committed violations if evidence is provided. It denied allegations that inmates were deprived of food, water and medical care. It acknowledged overcrowding in the facilities, which it attributed to lack of financial resources to secure larger centers.

The local authorities took issue with the allegation that people were arbitrarily detained, asserting that most detainees “are members of a terrorist organization and were arrested during the battles" and that many had committed crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The U.S. State Department said in its own response that “we share many of (Amnesty’s) concerns” and it has been working to address them. It called on the international community to “aid local entities’ management of these challenges” and for countries with citizens held in detention in Syria to repatriate them.

Waldman said she believes Washington "very likely knew about these poor conditions from the beginning."

She added: “We think that it may not be the case that they are doing everything they can. They need to accept a much greater responsibility, especially since they played such a key role in establishing the situation in the first place."

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. Amnesty International said Wednesday, April 17, 2024 it has documented widespread abuses, including torture and deprivation of medical care, in detention facilities holding thousands of suspected Islamic State members and their relatives in northeast Syria. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)

FILE - Women residents from former Islamic State-held areas in Syria line up for aid supplies at Al-Hol camp in Hassakeh province, Syria, March 31, 2019. Amnesty International said Wednesday, April 17, 2024 it has documented widespread abuses, including torture and deprivation of medical care, in detention facilities holding thousands of suspected Islamic State members and their relatives in northeast Syria. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)