BEIRUT: More than a week of inter-rebel fighting in Syria’s Turkish-held north has killed 58 people, mostly combatants — a flareup that has allowed Al-Qaeda-linked fighters to gain ground, a war monitor said Tuesday.
The clashes since October 8, in a volatile area near the Turkish border, have been among the deadliest in years, killing 48 rebel fighters and 10 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Among the 48 combatants killed, 28 were members of the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham alliance (HTS), which is led by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate, according to the Britain-based war monitor, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria.
Dozens of rebel groups opposed to President Bashar Assad are confined to areas of northern and northwestern Syria that still evade government control after more than a decade of war.
The latest fighting started this month between two rival pro-Turkish rebel groups in the town of Al-Bab in Aleppo province before spreading to other areas and drawing in other factions, including HTS.
HTS is widely seen as the strongest and best organized of the rebel factions and dominates the nearby Idlib region, Syria’s last major opposition bastion.
It has leveraged the latest bout of fighting to expand its zone of influence, in a move green-lit by Turkey, which has never publicly backed it, the Observatory said.
“Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham would not have entered the area without Turkey’s consent,” said Observatory chief Rami Abdul Rahman.
Last week, HTS captured the Afrin region from rival Turkish-backed rebels, advancing in the area for the first time since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011.
Since Monday, it has advanced toward the key town of Azaz, near the Turkish border further north, as persistent inter-rebel fighting has torpedoed a truce that briefly went into effect at the weekend.
Since 2011, the war in Syria has killed nearly half a million people and driven more than half of the country’s pre-war population from their homes.
Nearly 60 killed in 10 days of Syria rebel clashes: monitor
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Nearly 60 killed in 10 days of Syria rebel clashes: monitor
- Clashes since October 8 near the Turkish border have been among the deadliest in years
UN force says Israeli tank fired near peacekeepers in Lebanon
- Under the November 2024 truce, Israel was to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, but it has kept them in five areas it deems strategic and carries out regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites and operatives
BEIRUT: The UN Interim Force in Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired near its peacekeepers on Monday, and warned that such attacks were becoming “disturbingly common.”
UNIFIL has repeatedly reported Israeli fire near or toward its personnel in recent months, and less than two weeks ago, said gunfire from an Israeli position hit close to peacekeepers twice.
“UNIFIL peacekeepers observed two Merkava tanks move” from an Israeli army position inside Lebanese territory “further into Lebanon” on Monday, the force said in a statement.
UNIFIL has acted as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon for decades, and recently has been working with Lebanon’s army to support a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Under the November 2024 truce, Israel was to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, but it has kept them in five areas it deems strategic and carries out regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites and operatives.
“The peacekeepers requested through liaison channels that the tanks stop their activity,” the statement said.
Later, “one of the tanks fired three shells from its main gun, with two impacts approximately 150 meters away from the peacekeepers,” UNIFIL said, adding that “as the peacekeepers moved away for safety, they were continuously tracked with a laser from the tanks.”
The statement reported no casualties but noted UNIFIL had informed the Israeli army of its activities in the area in advance.
“Attacks like these on identifiable peacekeepers ... are becoming disturbingly common,” the statement said, urging a stop to such incidents.
It called them “a serious violation” of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and forms the basis of the current truce.
Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Beirut has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and last week, Lebanon’s army said it had finished doing so in the area near the border.
UNIFIL’s final mandate ends this year, and the force is to leave Lebanon in 2027.
