The Syrian army announced Wednesday January 29 the reconquest of Maaret al-Noomane, in the northwest of Syria. A key city to reconquer the province of Idleb, it is located in a region still dominated by jihadist groups and rebels.

"Our forces have succeeded in recent days in eliminating terrorism in several villages and localities," announced an army command statement read by a military official on public television, and which quotes the names of some twenty cities. , including that of Maaret al-Noomane.

Maaret al-Noomane is on the M5 motorway that the power of Bashar al-Assad seeks to secure because it connects Aleppo, a large city in northern Syria, to the capital Damascus.

Escaping from central power since 2012, Maaret al-Noomane had only 150,000 inhabitants a few months ago. But after weeks of deadly bombing, it is now almost deserted, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), an NGO which has a vast network of sources in the country at war.

Jihadist groups and weakened rebels

The army command undertakes to "hunt down what remains of armed terrorist organizations, until all the Syrian soil is purified of terrorism," added on Wednesday the press release from Bashar al-Assad's army.

The Damascus authorities describe both the jihadists and the rebels who took up arms against the government as "terrorists".

The jihadists of Hayat Tahrir al-Cham, the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, dominate the region of Idleb and adjacent territories in the provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia. These areas are also occupied by other jihadist groups and weakened rebels.

Mass exodus of civilians

The fighting that has been going on for several weeks has caused a huge exodus and on Tuesday again, an AFP correspondent in the north of the province saw displaced people from areas near Maaret al-Noomane.

Since early December, 358,000 people have been displaced by violence, the vast majority of them women and children, in northwest Syria, according to the UN.

In recent months, the Syrian regime has carried out several military operations to nibble on areas of territory in Idleb and its surroundings, despite the truce that ultimately fell on deaf ears.

With AFP

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