(MENAFN- Arab Times) Al- Qaeda's Syrian affiliate and its allies seized on Saturday the city of Idlib, only the second provincial capital to be lost by the regime in more than four years of war. The capture came as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed anger and shame at the world's failure to stop the conflict. More than 215,000 people have been killed since anti-government protests, which erupted in March 2011, were brutally repressed by President Bashar al- Assad's regime civil war followed. The country has been ravaged by warring factions, including jihadist groups.
The coalition that seized Idlib city is made up of Al-Nusra Front, the official Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda, and several Islamist factions. "Al-Nusra Front and its allies have captured all of Idlib," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "There is still a group of soldiers fighting in the security quarter of the city, but they will not be able to reverse the situation," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman added. The jihadist group also announced the capture of the northwestern city on its official Twitter accounts. "Thanks be to God, the city of Idlib has been liberated," it wrote. The group posted photos of its fighters in front of the governorate building, the city council, a local prison and a police station in the city.
Earlier, a Syrian security source acknowledged that "terrorist groups had infiltrated the outskirts of the city," but state media did not report Idlib's fall. Official news agency SANA said only that "army troops were regrouping south of the city of Idlib in preparation to face an influx of thousands of terrorists coming from Turkey." The government has regularly accused Turkey, a backer of the uprising against Assad, of providing support and sanctuary to "terrorists." The first provincial capital to fall was Raqa, in the north, which was seized by rebels in March 2013. The rebels were subsequently ousted by the Islamic State group, which has made Raqa the de factor Syrian capital of its selfproclaimed Islamic "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq.
Meanwhile, Assad has rejected allegations that his military used barrel bombs or chlorine gas against opposition-held areas, calling the accusations "malicious propaganda." In an interview with CBS News, the Syrian leader also said that he would be open to a dialogue with the United States, but that it must be "based on mutual respect." CBS published excerpts of the interview online Friday. The Syrian opposition and activists say government helicopters dropped bombs containing chlorine gas on the town of Sarmin in northwestern Syria's Idlib province on March 16, killing six people. Videos posted online showed people struggling to breathe, and the international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders said symptoms described by medics in contact with the group clearly indicate the presence of chlorine poisoning.
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