Roundup: Jihadist militants make notable gains in recent months in Syria

In recent months, the extremist groups, mainly the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, have made progress on several key fronts in Syria, stripping the Syrian government forces of crucial areas and threatening the security of others.

In less than two months, the Syrian forces lost the northwestern city of Idlib, near Turkey, the key town of Busra al-Sham in the south, and the Nasib crossing, the last remaining border point with Jordan.

On Saturday, the Nusra fighters and affiliated militants overran the Jisr al-Shughour city in the countryside of Idlib, near the Turkish borders.

Local media said the militants were streaming in droves into the city from the Turkish territory, amid fresh reports that the Syrian army has started a counter-offensive for the recapture of that key area.

Jisr al-Shughour is located in the western countryside of Idlib, to the far northwest of the Syrian-Turkish borders. It's also adjacent to the al-Akrad mountain in the countryside of the coastal city of Latakia, the hometown of President Bashar al-Assad.

The city has a strategic importance as it lies on the international road connecting Latakia with the northern city of Aleppo, which makes it a link and compulsory conduit between the coastal cities and the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, not to mention its proximity to the Turkish borders.

Experts said the city constitutes the gate of the coastal cities in Syria from the north and the demarcation line between the Syrian and Turkish borders.

They added that the fall of Jisr al-Shughour after Idlib city would give the militants a launching pad for opening new fronts in the countryside of Idlib and Latakia, which would threat the supply lines of the Syrian government forces between Aleppo and Latakia.

Expert said, however, that the regrouping the Syrian units made around Jisr al-Shughour and the international road would to some extent alleviate such fears as the Syrian army has important bases in the countryside of Latakia.

In the northwestern countryside of the central province of Hama, the militant groups also advanced in the al-Ghab Plains area, which is adjacent to Jisr al-Shughour.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said the battle in Jisr al-Shughour and al-Ghab is one, adding that the militants captured three government checkpoints in al-Ghab on Saturday.

The Observatory said Sunday that the Islamist militants were advancing in al-Ghab amid heavy aerial campaign on that area and Jisr al-Shughour, where 20 militants and six civilians were killed as a result of the airstrikes, according to the UK-based Observatory.

Abdul-Rahman said the last six months had witnessed a series of defeats of the Syrian forces in several areas in the north and the south, namely in the province of Daraa, where the Nusra Front and other hard-line groups captured the town of Busra al-Sham and the Nasib border crossing with Jordan.

He said the armed militants had "for sure" received weapon shipments, stopping short of naming the parties or the countries that have facilitated the flow of weapons to the militants. He said, however, that the weapons contributed to the militants recent progress.

He added that the next few months will witness attacks on the government troops from Aleppo in the north to Daraa in the south.

The Syrian government accuses neighboring countries, such as Jordan and Turkey, of facilitating the flow of militants and weapons into the country.

Earlier this month, the Nusra and allied militants took control of the Nasib crossing, the last remaining border crossing with Jordan.

Throughout the crisis, the Syrian government had lost almost all of the border points with neighboring countries, save for two crossings with Lebanon.

The progress by Nusra came also after the Islamic State (IS) group controlled the entire city of al-Raqqa in northern Syria almost two years ago, and after the group seized control of large swathes of the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, bordering Iraq, and the Syrian Desert.

Meanwhile, the state news agency SANA reported Sunday that the Syrian troops carried out overnight raids on the military posts which were overran by the militants in Jisr al-Shughour and the northwestern countryside of Hama, inflicting "hefty losses" on them.

It said the military forces surrounded the militant groups in the towns of Mansura and Qahira in northern Hama, killing all of their members.

Political experts said the intensification of battles and attacks comes ahead of the forthcoming meeting in Geneva, where the Syrian government and opposition parties are going to meet in the framework of finding a formula for a political solution to the country's long-running conflict.

They said each party on the ground will try the best of their ability to make gains ahead of the meeting to empower their positions or the external parties supporting them.

The United Nations spokesman Ahmad Fawzi announced Friday that the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura had invited Syria's government and opposition groups for separate talks in Geneva on May 4.

De Mistura plans for "low-key" talks with each of the main stakeholders over four to six weeks in the Swiss city, Ahmad Fawzi said, according to SANA.

Major world powers and regional players have been invited, but not the IS or Nusra, which are classified as terrorist organizations. Some of those present at the talks would be able to communicate with them, he added.

Separate consultations will involve representatives or ambassadors of the invited parties whose aim is to study the situation, Fawzi said.

Previous attempts to reach a political solution in Geneva were rendered flat by the widening gap between the government and the opposition representatives, analysts said, adding that the prospects of the new meeting is still unclear with the rapid change of the battles' map in Syria. Endit