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Syrian Forces Still Battling Insurgents12/04 06:09
Syria said Wednesday its counteroffensive has pushed back insurgents
attempting to advance to the strategic central city of Hama, while the
insurgency says it captured more Syrian troops and Iran-backed militants in
fierce battles.
BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria said Wednesday its counteroffensive has pushed back
insurgents attempting to advance to the strategic central city of Hama, while
the insurgency says it captured more Syrian troops and Iran-backed militants in
fierce battles.
The latest flareup in Syria's long civil war comes after forces opposed to
Syrian President Bashar Assad over the past days captured large parts of the
northern city of Aleppo, the country's largest, as well as towns and villages
in southern parts of the northwestern Idlib province.
The war between Assad and his foreign backers and the array of armed
opposition forces seeking his overthrow has killed an estimated half-million
people over the past 13 years.
Syrian state media SANA said insurgents retreated some 20 kilometers (12
miles) from government-held Hama, Syria's fourth largest city, as government
troops backed by Russian airpower entrenched themselves in the outskirts.
Fierce fighting has raged for days as Damascus fears that the insurgents will
make their way into the city like they did over the weekend into Aleppo.
The insurgency through its Military Operations Department channel on the
Telegram app said they captured five Iran-backed militants, of whom two were
from Afghanistan, as well as three Syrian troops from its 25th Special Mission
Forces Division in eastern Hama. The claims could not be independently
confirmed.
If the insurgents seize Hama city and control the province, it could leave
the coastal cities of Tartous and Lattakia isolated from the rest of the
country. Lattakia is a key political stronghold for Assad and Syria's Alawite
community and a strategic Russian naval base.
Tens of thousands have been displaced by the fighting, which started last
week, Geir Pedersen, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, said Tuesday.
"If we do not see deescalation and a rapid move to a serious political
process, involving the Syrian parties and the key international players, then I
fear we will see a deepening of the crisis," Pedersen said in an address the
U.N. Security Council. "Syria will be in grave danger of further division,
deterioration, and destruction."
The insurgency is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadi group, as well as an
umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National
Army. For years, both have entrenched themselves in northwest Idlib province
and parts of northern Aleppo, as the battered country reeled from years of
political and military stalemates.
The groups, alongside Turkey, believe that the insurgency shows that Assad
must reconcile with opposition forces and include them in any political
solution to end the conflict.
Ankara has been seeking to normalize ties with Syria to address security
threats from groups affiliated with Kurdish militants along its southern border
and to help ensure the safe return of more than 3 million Syrian refugees.
Assad has insisted that Turkey's withdrawal of its military forces from
northern Syria be a condition for any normalization between the two countries.
Damascus views the insurgents as terrorists, and Assad has vowed to respond
to the insurgency with an iron fist.
Turkish and Iranian officials have met earlier this week, in a bid to reach
a solution to deescalate the flareup. Arab countries bordering Syria and once
backed groups that tried to overthrow Assad, have expressed their concern of
the conflict's regional impacts, and have backed the president.
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