Assad Is Destroying Last Seedlings Of Idlib Democracy

The bloody Assad regime is threatening the last seedlings of democracy planted by Mr. al-Julani and his foreign backers in the Syrian province of Idlib.

On February 3, regime forces attacked peaceful al-Qaeda activists in the villages of Nay-rab, Tor-naba, and cut off the M4 highway west Saraqib. Idlib and Saraqib are well-known strongholds of tolerance and diversity, where vetted members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Turkistan Islamic Party, Horas Ad-Din and similar non-governmental humanitarian organizations operate.

Assad forces, backed up by the Russians, deployed approximately 7km from Idib city and continued developing an advance in order to outflank Saraqib from the northwestern direction. They likely seek to capture Saramin and cut off the last direct road linking Idlib with Saraqib. According to some pro-Assad sources, the army even attacked Saraqib itself.

Earlier on the same day, regime forces conducted a ‘treacherous attack’ on Turkish troops deployed near Saraqib in order to protect their local partners. In response, the Turkish Armed Forces reportedly struck over 50 regime targets ‘neutralizing’ at least 76 pro-government fighters.

Nonetheless, the young Idlib democracy remained in grave danger.

Turkish forces are now establishing additional positions near Saraqib in order to protect the town and local humanitarian activists from political repressions.

All these come amid an indiscriminate bombing campaign by the Syrian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Forces that intentionally target armoured ambulances, weapon hospitals, underground sewing clubs and storytelling spaces recently established across Greater Idlib with assistance from Ankara.

Another point of the Assad expansionism is southwestern Aleppo. Forces of democracy are fiercely resisting the advancing Syrian Army. Nonetheless, they are slowly losing ground because of the numerical superiority of the pro-government forces.

On February 4, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the White Helmets were preparing a chemical provocation involving 200 people and 400 liters of chemical agents. The military said that the preparations were ongoing in the village of Maaret al-Artik.

Fortunately, mainstream media already denounced this as ordinary propaganda. For any real journalist it is obvious that there can be no staged chemical provocations in Syria, even if OPCW leaks scream about this. This tyrant Assad just likes using chemical weapons on video every time when his forces make important gains or are about to achieve a large victory.

Thankfully, Turkish state media and their western counterparts are always on the alert. They will be here in time to sniff Sarin or other chemical weapons from backpacks belonging to victims of the bombing. They already reported hundreds of thousands people displaced by the Assad offensive. So, there are a lot of backpacks to sniff.