Rival factions of the anti-Assad galaxy have been clashing in Syria for ten days. The death toll would be 28 HTS fighters, another 20 from pro-Ankara groups and a dozen civilians. The Turkish army did not intervene, leaving the field open to the opposing groups.
Aleppo () – Nearly 60 dead is the provisional balance of a series of clashes that have taken place in the last 10 days between the main jihadist organization in northern Syria and the anti-Assad rebel militias, supported by Turkey. These battles, which local sources have described as the bloodiest in recent years, have allowed the Hayat Tahrir al-Cham (HTS) group, a former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, to gain ground in the regions under the influence of Ankara, in the area adjacent to the border with Turkey.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), a British-based NGO that has a vast network of informants in Syria, 28 HTS fighters and 20 others from pro-Turkish factions were killed, as well as a dozen civilians. The clashes began on October 8 and the Turkish army deployed in the region did not intervene, leaving the two factions free to act. In a few days, the jihadists took full control of the Afrin region, near the border, but now they must respond to the military counteroffensive and quell the protests of the population, which is not in favor of their hegemony.
The opposing sides had reached an agreement that gave the HTS the administration of Afrin, whose security it should have guaranteed by deploying checkpoints around the city and in the area that separates it from the territories controlled by the Syrian government and the Kurds. This pact was to be extended to other regions near the border, but last night the fighting resumed – after a brief truce – in the vicinity of Azaz, a stronghold of the pro-Turkish Jabhat al-Shamiyah militias. The director of the observatory Rami Abdel Rahmane stated that the HTS jihadists could not have entered that region “without the green light” from Ankara.
Turkey, which has opposed Bashar al-Assad’s regime since the war began, began deploying troops to northern Syria in 2020, controlling the territories and creating a buffer zone. Ankara has recently begun mediation with the Syrian government and Assad himself, in an attempt to silence the weapons and achieve a peace that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could display on the internal front ahead of next year’s elections. Meanwhile, since the HTS offensive began, hundreds of people have demonstrated in various cities against the advance of the jihadist group that today controls nearly half of Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in the country, where Ten years of conflict have already left a balance of almost half a million dead.
