Syria Regime Reroutes Forces from Idlib to Badia Desert in Clampdown on ISIS

Syrians on a motorbike drive past the carcass of a charred car in Idlib on June 10, 2021. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Syrians on a motorbike drive past the carcass of a charred car in Idlib on June 10, 2021. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
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Syria Regime Reroutes Forces from Idlib to Badia Desert in Clampdown on ISIS

Syrians on a motorbike drive past the carcass of a charred car in Idlib on June 10, 2021. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Syrians on a motorbike drive past the carcass of a charred car in Idlib on June 10, 2021. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)

Syrian regime forces renewed shelling the southern parts of the northwestern governorate of Idlib, with reports citing fighters retreating from contact lines there to the Badia desert to fight ISIS with support from the Russian air force.

“On Thursday morning, rocket and artillery shells targeted areas in Ihsim, Al-Bara, Ibilin, Balshon, Jawsaf, Abdeta, Arnaba, Al-Fatirah Fleifel, Benin, and Sifwuhun in the southern Idlib countryside,” local sources told the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Shelling on Abdeta resulted in the death of two combatants from the Turkey-backed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) factions.

Many injuries were also reported as witnessed said warplanes and reconnaissance aircraft flew over Zawiya Mountain, a highland region in Idlib.

Regime forces also targeted and destroyed a civilian car with a guided missile east of Al-Ziyadiya region in Al-Ghab Plain.

SOHR sources indicated that several regime rocket shells hit the vicinity of a Turkish outpost in the village of Sarjah at the base of Zawiya Mountain.

Turkish forces, accompanied by the Syrian opposition factions named “Al-Fateh al-Mubeen,” responded to the attack by targeting regime areas with dozens of rocket and artillery shells in Kafrnabel and other regions of the southern and eastern Idlib countryside.

Military sites held by regime forces and supporting militias near contact lines with armed Syrian opposition factions south of Idlib are witnessing withdrawal of heavy machinery and combatants, and their deployment in the Badia desert.

“Over the past two days, large numbers of regime forces were seen withdrawing, in addition to several military vehicles,” said Idlib-based activist Ahmed Qassem.

Qassem added that the forces redeployed along with vehicles equipped with medium and heavy machine guns.

According to a Syrian opposition source, three military regime columns were transported from areas near Maarat al-Numan and Saraqib, southeast of Idlib.

They were moved to the Salamiyah area, east of Hama governorate, the source revealed, adding that the columns include convoys with dozens of fighters onboard, tank carriers, and military vehicles.



Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Resolution 1701 Only Tangible Proposal to End Lebanon Conflict

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
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Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Resolution 1701 Only Tangible Proposal to End Lebanon Conflict

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)

Politicians in Beirut said they have not received any credible information about Washington resuming its mediation efforts towards reaching a ceasefire in Lebanon despite reports to the contrary.

Efforts came to a halt after US envoy Amos Hochstein’s last visit to Beirut three weeks ago.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri dismissed the reports as media fodder, saying nothing official has been received.

Lebanon is awaiting tangible proposals on which it can build its position, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The only credible proposal on the table is United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, whose articles must be implemented in full by Lebanon and Israel, “not just Lebanon alone,” he stressed.

Resolution 1701 was issued to end the 2006 July war between Hezbollah and Israel and calls for removing all weapons from southern Lebanon and that the only armed presence there be restricted to the army and UN peacekeepers.

Western diplomatic sources in Beirut told Asharq Al-Awsat that Berri opposes one of the most important articles of the proposed solution to end the current conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

He is opposed to the German and British participation in the proposed mechanism to monitor the implementation of resolution 1701. The other participants are the United States and France.

Other sources said Berri is opposed to the mechanism itself since one is already available and it is embodied in the UN peacekeepers, whom the US and France can join.

The sources revealed that the solution to the conflict has a foreign and internal aspect. The foreign one includes Israel, the US and Russia and seeks guarantees that would prevent Hezbollah from rearming itself. The second covers Lebanese guarantees on the implementation of resolution 1701.

Berri refused to comment on the media reports, but told Asharq Al-Awsat that this was the first time that discussions are being held about guarantees.

He added that “Israel is now in crisis because it has failed to achieve its military objectives, so it has resorted to more killing and destruction undeterred.”

He highlighted the “steadfastness of the UN peacekeepers in the South who have refused to leave their positions despite the repeated Israeli attacks.”