Residents and opponents in Syria said today, Monday, that fierce fighting between rival resistance factions in northwest Syria have restarted a day after a tenuous cease-fire put a stop to a horrific five-day battle in the last bastion of the armed opposition.
On Saturday, the dominant hardline faction coerced the Headquarters for the Liberation of Al-Sham, a group supported by Turkey and listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and other countries, to accept a peace deal that increased its influence in the area.
The terms of the deal, which Turkey mediated for its contract and which calls for the return of fighters from Afrin and other cities to their original locations and opens the way for a unified civil administration, were allegedly being retracted, according to accusations traded between the two parties.
Violent fighting near rugged lands raged around the village of Kafr Jana in northern Aleppo, where both sides sent reinforcements.
The locals worry that the hard-line faction’s goal will be to seize control of Azaz, a strategically important border city that serves as the administrative hub for the Turkish-backed opposition government.
A leader in a main faction that does not participate in the fighting said that the hardline faction is close to the border crossing point with Turkey, the Bab Al -Salama, northwest of Azaz.
Since the beginning of the revolt against Bashar al-Assad in 2011, internal conflict has made the Syrian opposition weaker. Large Syrian regions were restored with the aid of Assad and his allies.
The Headquarters for the Liberation of Al-Sham reportedly wants to play a bigger economic and security role in northern Syria than just protecting its base in the heavily populated city of Idlib, according to sources in Western Intelligence and opponents.
According to the sources, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, the group’s leader, wants to spread the influence of the civil administration, which is currently in charge of overseeing the effectiveness of public services in the Idlib region, to other regions in an effort to shed his organization’s reputation for militancy after defecting from the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda.
A senior source in the Headquarters for the Liberation of Al-Sham told Reuters, “We are working on a project that serves everyone and the purposes of the revolution, it unifies the liberated territories in one army and a united government in which everyone, citizens and regions, contribute.
after the ceasefire was broken, the fighting between opposition groups in northwest Syria resumed.
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