Syrian rebels and activists are warning that an al-Qaida-linked jihadi group (Nusra Front) is on the verge of snuffing out what remains of the country's uprising in northwestern Syria, after the extremists seized control of the opposition-held regional capital, Idlib, last weekend.
"There is the real possibility that because of the Nusra Front's domination, the regime will enter the area with international approval," said Lt. Col. Fares Bayoush, a longtime opponent of Assad, who has been leading a rebel faction in north Syria.
The Nusra Front is one of the many names for the al-Qaida-affiliate that now heads the mighty Hay'at Tahrir al Sham militant alliance Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee that seized the city of Idlib, as well as two border crossings with Turkey to feed its coffers. It is also known as HTS.
In Idlib demonstrations last week, the group's members shot at protesters waving the tri-color flag of the Syrian uprising. HTS will only accept their own, jihadi-inspired black flags to be flown in their presence.
HTS deployed across Idlib city last weekend after a rival faction, the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group, withdrew. Five days of clashes around the province left 77 fighters and 15 civilians dead, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
HTS and Ahrar have long been at odds over Idlib, but the rout last week nevertheless carried a hint of betrayal, as the two sides fought side by side in 2015 to throw the government out of the province once and for all. Armed with anti-tank missiles supplied to supporting moderate opposition forces, some of which ended up in the hands of the Nusra Front, the coalition's advantage was so great that Assad conceded, for the first time in the war, that he might not be able to retain control over all of Syria.
But Russia intervened with a bruising aerial campaign that drove the rebels and insurgents back on all fronts. Further infighting between the factions has all but doomed any hopes of rebels reaching the Syrian capital, Damascus.
