(MENAFN- Arab Times) Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate and its Islamist allies launched an attack Wednesday on the last two Shiite Muslim villages under regime control in northwest Idlib province, militants and a monitor said.
The "Army of Conquest" rebel coalition, which includes al-Qaeda branch Al- Nusra Front, announced online its assault on the villages of Fuaa and Kafraya. "We decided to begin the 'Battle of Kafraya and Fuaa' against the forces of (Bashar al-) Assad and Iranian militias", a statement read.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the villages are the last two Shiite Muslim localities held by the regime in Idlib, which rebels have overrun in recent months. "This is a very violent attack. There is heavy shelling on the towns, which have been besieged since March," he told AFP. The Army of Conquest said it decided to launch its attack after the regime and Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah began an offensive on Zabadani, the last rebel-held bastion along Syria's border with Lebanon, earlier this month. It said the attack would "give you a taste in the north of what our people are tasting in Zabadani".
Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, had stationed commanders in Kafraya and Fuaa and had trained local military leaders, Abdel Rahman said. The Army of Conquest seized Idlib city on March 28 and went on to capture a major town and the province's largest military base. Idlib province lies adjacent to the regime's coastal bastion of Latakia, the heartland for Alawites - the offshoot of Shiite Islam from which the Assad clan hails.
Meanwhile, thirteen civilians, among them seven children, were killed in aerial attacks by Syria's government Wednesday on the northern province of Aleppo, a monitoring group said. "A woman and her three children, as well as another child, were killed when helicopters dropped a barrel bomb on the village of Taduf," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Taduf, which lies in the northeast of Syria's Aleppo province, is controlled by the Islamic State group. In the province's west, "eight civilians, including three children, were killed when regime warplanes struck the village of Daret Izza," held by Islamist fighters and other rebels. "Regime forces are continuing to kill civilians through aerial attacks, with barrel bombs or shells, indifferent to the international resolutions on this matter," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
He said the attacks amounted to "war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by regime forces on a daily basis." Abdel Rahman told AFP the bombing campaign was an effort by the regime "to turn civilians against the opposition factions or against IS, with the reasoning that the aerial attacks are a result of the presence of fighters inside their towns and villages." The regime has stepped up air attacks in Aleppo province in recent days, killing at least 57 civilians when it dropped "container bombs" on the IS-held town of Al-Bab at the weekend. In another development, the Lebanese army says troops have confiscated a drone in the eastern Bekaa Valley as it was being taken to insurgents on the Syrian side of the border.
The army said Wednesday the Flying Cam drone was to be used for spying on Lebanese army positions. It added that an investigation has begun to know where the drone came from. In August, Islamic militants crossed from Syria into the Lebanese border town of Arsal, capturing more than 20 Lebanese soldiers and police officers. The militants have killed four of them. Since then, it has been common for the Lebanese army to shell militant positions on the Lebanon-Syria border.
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