Over 60 Killed in Heavy Fighting in Northern Syria

38 al-Qaeda fighters and 23 government loyalists killed in clashes

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, heavy fighting has broken out in the Idlib Province of northern Syria, where over 60 fighters were killed in the past 24 hours starting Thursday night.

Fighting centered on the town of Marrat al-Numaan, where 38 fighters from al-Qaeda and its allied factions were killed, along with 23 fighters described as “Syrian government loyalists.”

It’s not clear any territory changed hands in the fighting, though Russian airstrikes were reported against al-Qaeda targets in the area, and a lot of civilians were fleeing the area.

As with a lot of situations in Syria, though, chasing civilians out of an area doesn’t mean it has fallen to either side, and Maarat al-Numaan has regularly been a target in Idlib fighting for both sides, with neither on the verge of overrunning the other.

Author: Jason Ditz

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.