Idlib/Amman – Syrian citizens and opponents reported on Monday that deadly skirmishes between rival opposition groups in northwest Syria had restarted, a day after a tenuous cease-fire brokered by Turkey that put a stop to a five-day bloody battle in the final bastion of the armed opposition.
Once again, Turkey has failed to exert control over militant organisations and syrian militias that dominate territory under its occupying authority.
It is unclear whether Turkey, which formerly exerted pressure to destroy the Syrian regime after a decade of animosity, has lost control of the opposition militias that were loyal to it or if it is the one that tries to maintain tensions and conflict between these militias.
On Saturday, the largest jihadist faction compelled the US, Turkey, and other countries to accept a peace deal that increased its influence in the region. The terrorist group supporting the opposition Syrian National Army was supported by Ankara.
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.
Around the village of Kafr Jana in northern Aleppo, where each of the two sides received military reinforcements, fierce fighting raged amid rocky terrain.
The locals worry that the jihadist faction’s objective will be to seize control of the crucial border city of Azaz, which serves as the administrative hub of the opposition government that Turkey supports.
The jihadist faction is near the Turkish border crossing point, also known as the “door of safety,” northwest of Azaz, according to a commander of a major faction that does not take part in the battle who asked to remain anonymous.
Since the beginning of the revolt against Bashar al-Assad in 2011, internal conflict has made the Syrian opposition weaker. Large areas of Syrian land were restored as a result of the war between them and their allies.
Sources in Western intelligence and opponents say that the Headquarters for the Liberation of Al -Sham has been seeking a broader economic and security role in northern Syria, which exceeds its stronghold in the densely populated city of Idlib.
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 a Turkish-sponsored ceasefire failed, Syrian militias started fighting again.
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