Syria and Russia have announced the end of last week’s Idlib Province ceasefire on Monday, and have resumed some airstrikes against rebel targets in the northwestern province.
Officials say the decision was because the rebels had not complied with
the terms of the ceasefire, both in that some rebel faction attacked a
Russian base, and more importantly, reestablishing the buffer zone isn’t
happening.
Nor indeed was it going to. Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front said that their
support for the ceasefire was intact, but that they had no intention of
complying with the term of withdrawing 20 km out of the buffer zone.
This appears to have convinced government forces that the truce was
unsustainable, so the few days of calm the locals got appears to have
come to a close, and fighting is once again raging in the area.
Syria, Russia Scrap Idlib Ceasefire, Resume Airstrikes
Al-Qaeda refused to withdraw from buffer zone
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.
