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HTS offensive could draw in Syria and Turkey
[Al Jazeera] Hashem* says he locked the doors, drew the shutters, and hid in his house with his family. He feared being spotted by fighters from the former al-Qaeda-linked group, Hay'et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), in Syria's Aleppo province."They came in and started shooting everywhere," said Hashem, a father of two in al-Atareb in Western Aleppo. "We are very, very afraid. They will kill us all." HTS took over Hashem's town on Sunday as it continued its expansion campaign from Idlib - which it already dominates - into surrounding areas held by ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... -backed groups of the National Liberation Front ...the Turkic paramilitaries intended to replace with their native jihadi ferocity all the highly trained Turkish soldiers Sultan Erdogan I the much belovedhas jailed in the last few years for not worshipping the ground he walks upon. The Uighurs and so forth who did not join Al Nusra or ISIS seem to have ended up here... (NLF). Over the past seven days, HTS captured several villages and at least one other town, Darat Izza. The group's aim is to acquire more territory so it has a stronger hand to play as Russia and Turkey prepare a final political agreement over Syria's last rebel-held enclave, which sprawls across Idlib, parts of Aleppo, and a sliver of neighbouring Hama provinces. Whatever settlement is reached will almost certainly demand the containment and elimination of the gang. Posted by: Fred 2019-01-15 |
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