Around the world, people are watching the suffering of the people of Idlib with pity; their governments are alarmed at the looming confrontation between Turkey, a member of NATO, and Russia and Iran, the backers of the government of Syria led by Bashar al-Assad. The brutal tactics of Assad and his allies are nothing new, however. It is just that there was much less noise in the West when they were deployed in the region before, by different actors.
The Syrian government and its allies are attempting to take control of Idlib Province with a combination of air power, artillery bombardment and ground forces. Russian and Syrian air forces provide the air power; the Syrian army and Iranian-backed militias make up the ground troops. Air and ground bombardment have been critical because the rebels have no anti-aircraft weapons and have very little in the way of artillery, so it has become a matter of ‘remote warfare’ carried out at a distance wherever possible.
An inevitable result has been many civilian casualties, with reports this week of schools being hit, as well as huge movements of refugees desperate to escape the conflict yet unable to cross the border into Turkey.
