Syria: Jihadists kill 9 Syria regime fighters near Idlib
Jihadists on Friday killed nine Syrian regime fighters near a planned buffer zone around the country’s last major rebel bastion, a monitor said.
A September deal between government ally Russia and opposition backer Turkey aimed to set up a de-militarised zone around the northwestern region of Idlib to protect it from a regime assault.
But its implementation has been stalled since jihadists who hold around 70% of the planned buffer area failed to withdraw by mid-October, and sporadic clashes have rocked the area since.
Early Friday, jihadist groups attacked government forces in the northwest of Hama province near the planned buffer zone, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.