Deadline passes for Idlib buffer without jihadists leaving

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A deadline passed Monday without jihadists leaving a planned buffer zone around Syria's last major rebel bastion of Idlib as set out under a Russian-Turkish deal.

The radical fighters were supposed to withdraw from the buffer as a final condition to implementing a Russian-Turkish deal to stave off a government offensive on the northwestern region of Idlib.

The accord hung in the balance on the early hours of Monday, seven years into a grinding civil war that has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions.

Syrian children who fled with their families from the northern countryside of Hama, jump rope in the yard of the makeshift school in the al-Jeneinah camp for displaced people in the village of Atme in Idlib, October 1, 2018. /VCG Photo

Just hours before the cut-off time, Idlib's dominant jihadist group vowed to continue to fight but did not give a clear position on the deal reached in Sochi.

"We have not abandoned our choice of jihad and fighting towards implementing our blessed revolution," said Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an alliance led by the jihadists of Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate.

"We appreciate the efforts of all those who strive inside and abroad to protect the liberated area," it said.

Under the accord, heavy weapons were meant to have been withdrawn from the horseshoe-shaped buffer by October 10 and radical fighters were meant to have left by Monday.

Syrian rebel fighters from the National Liberation Front secure a tank, part of heavy weapons and equipment withdrawn yesterday from a planned buffer zone around Idlib, October 9, 2018. /VCG Photo

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had not observed any jihadists leaving the outlined demilitarized area by the time midnight struck.

And deadly mortar rounds fired late Saturday from the planned buffer, according to the Britain-based monitor, appeared to indicate the first part of the deal was not fully implemented either.

"The jihadists not withdrawing gives the Syrian government and Russia an excuse to carry out a military operation at least within the demilitarized zone," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

HTS had likely "tried to gain time by neither explicitly refusing nor accepting the deal" between Russia and Turkey, he said.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad chairs the central committee of the ruling Baath party in Damascus, October 7, 2018. /VCG Photo

Rebels and jihadists had reportedly fulfilled the first part of the deal, with Turkish officials, armed factions and the Observatory reporting that the area was free of heavy-duty weaponry.

But the shells which Saturday hit an army position in Hama province appear to have violated the accord.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other top government officials have warned that the Idlib deal was only a "temporary" measure.

On Friday, residents around Idlib received warning messages on their mobile phones from the Syrian army.

"Get away from the fighters. Their fate is sealed and near," one said.

Source(s): AFP