About a week of heavy rebel infighting in northern Syria’s Aleppo
Province continues to rage, with the Turkish-backed rebel factions deploying growing numbers of reinforcements in the area to try to stave off gains by al-Qaeda’s Tahrir al-Sham faction.
Al-Qaeda reported last week that the Turkish rebels attacked them first.
After that, al-Qaeda launched a major, growing counteroffensive, and has seized at least 20 towns and villages of the immediate area along the Aleppo-Idlib border.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is also reporting some major
losses being sustained in this fighting, saying the Noureddin al-Zinki
having lost more than 100 fighters in fighting against al-Qaeda.
Russia reportedly carried out an airstrike against one of the seized
towns, killing two civilians. While Turkey seems to be trying to get a
handle on this situation, mounting al-Qaeda gains could force Syria and
Russia to get more involved in rebel territory just to keep it from
being unified under al-Qaeda forces.
Al-Qaeda Captures 20 Towns and Villages in Northern Syria
Offensive gains territory along Aleppo-Idlib border
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
Join the Discussion!
We welcome thoughtful and respectful comments. Hateful language, illegal content, or attacks against Antiwar.com will be removed.
For more details, please see our Comment Policy.
