About 50,000 people have been displaced amid intense fighting between militants and the Syrian army, the UN has estimated, as international calls grow for an end to the violence.
Militants battled against army troops on Tuesday as groups advanced towards the city of Hama in central Syria, on the road between Aleppo and Damascus, a war monitor said.
"Clashes have erupted in the northern Hama countryside, where rebel factions managed to seize several cities and towns in the last few hours," said the UK-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The insurgents’ military operations administration said gunmen killed 50 government troops as they captured the central towns of Halfaya, Taybat Al Imam, Maardes and Sawran.
The fighting has killed more than 455 people, including at least 72 civilians, the observatory said. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has expressed alarm over the sharp escalation of violence and has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a return to the UN-enabled political process.
Turkey, which supports the rebels but is fighting Kurdish troops in Syria, said Syrian President Bashar Al Assad must reconcile with his own people and hold talks with the opposition. It blamed the recent flare-up on the Syrian government’s refusal to enter a dialogue with the opposition.
“Recent developments show once again that Damascus must reconcile with its own people and the legitimate opposition,” the Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Monday, during a press conference in Ankara with the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. “Turkey is ready to make all the necessary contribution towards this.”
Syria’s civil war has flared-up after remaining dormant for years, with last week’s advance by rebels led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, a former Al Qaeda affiliate, into Aleppo and Idlib. Syrian and Russian air forces retaliated with deadly air attacks to push back the rebels.
As of November 30, more than 48,500 people had been displaced in Idlib and northern Aleppo, more than half of them children, the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA said on Monday, adding that the situation was highly fluid. The number of displaced was a steep increase from the 14,000 people reported on 28 November.
“Tens of thousands of people on the move; critical services interrupted; women, men and children fearing for safety,” OCHA chief Tom Fletcher said on X. “Syrians have already endured over 13 years of suffering. All sides must do more to protect civilians.”
Syria has been in the grips of a brutal civil war since Mr Al Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests in 2011, which later grew into armed rebellion and drew in foreign powers, regional armies and extremist groups into one of the most complex battle fields in the region. The conflict killed more than 300,000 people, according to the UN, and displaced 14 million people, leading to one of the biggest refugee crises that spread across continents.
The latest uprising is one of the strongest in recent years against Mr Al Assad’s government that is supported by Russia and Iran. As militants claim more territorial gains, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have been posted in Syria to back the government’s counter-offensive against the insurgents, an Iraqi militia official said on Monday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed hope that the instability in Syria would come to an end “in line with the legitimate demands of the Syrian people”. He was speaking on Monday at a news conference with the President of Montenegro Jakov Milatovic.
US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Syrian government has ignored Security Council resolutions and refused to come to the table.
“We are watching that situation very closely, and we will continue to engage with partners in the region to find a path for the situation to go back to calm,” she said.
Mr Guterres's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, called on all parties to “do their utmost to protect civilians and civilian objects, including by allowing safe passage to civilians who are fleeing hostilities”. He said the UN peacekeeping operations in the country have been largely suspended across Aleppo, Idlib and Hama because of security concerns, depriving people of life-saving assistance.
Mr Dujarric warned that “the presence of unburied bodies and lack of drinking water” in Syria threatens public health and said that damage to Aleppo's university hospital had left hundreds of patients without care.
“Syria is also already one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, with 16.7 million human beings in need of assistance and over seven million people internally displaced,” he said.
