The Syrian war has largely disappeared from the front pages of papers due to the mistaken assumption that the war is ‘winding down’.
After the pro-Assad coalition re-captured large areas in the war-torn country and restored Assad’s rule over vital areas such as the Golan Heights and the Daraa province, where the uprising against the Syrian dictator started in 2011, all eyes turned to the north of Syria.
The northwestern Province of Idlib seemed not on Assad’s re-conquer agenda due to the presence of a large army of Islamist rebels who are supported by the regime of Turkish autocratic leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Over the last three months, however, Assad’s army stepped-up its actions against the Islamist rebels but the Syrian army failed to make gains due to fierce resistance by the Islamist coalition of anti-Assad militias which is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
However, the situation began to change when the Russian air force stepped up airstrikes against the rebels and more recently when Iran-backed Shiite militias began to operate in Idlib, Hama and eastern Latakia.
Last Sunday, the pro-Assad coalition scored its first victory over the rebels in Idlib who receive most of their weapons and ammunition from the Erdogan regime.
The Syrian army finally succeeded to capture the town of al-Habeet and has now set its sights on Khan Sheikhoun.
Khan Sheikoun is home to a large contingent of Tahrir al-Sham rebels and was the scene of a chemical attack by Assad’s army in the spring of 2017 which led to a retaliation by the US military which bombed the Shayrat Air Base with 59 cruise missiles.
The town is currently bombed by Syrian helicopters and Russian warplanes while the Syrian army and its allies are making rapid progress toward Khan Sheikhoun and are now within 3 miles of the outskirts of the town, according to Associated Press. READ MORE
