Jihadists Attack Rebels in Northwestern Syria

Jihadists launched a surprise attack on rebels in northwestern Syria on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The jihadist group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (JFS), formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, attacked the positions of rebel groups fighting under the Free Syrian Army (FSA), some of whose members attended peace talks in Kazakhstan.

JFS changed its name in July 2016 after it claimed it had cut ties with al-Qaida. The group is the most powerful in rebel-held Idlib province, and was excluded from a December 30 nationwide cease-fire brokered by Turkey and Russia.

JFS has accused rebels attending the peace talks in the Kazakh capital of conspiring against it, and said in a statement it would act preemptively to “thwart conspiracies.” JFS positions have been targeted by U.S. airstrikes on northwestern Syria in the past month.

Rebels told Reuters that JFS attacked their positions in the western Aleppo countryside and in Idlib. They accused the jihadists of trying to “eliminate the revolution.”

Talks in Astana End With Russia, Regional Powers Agreeing to Back Truce

Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed to support and monitor a nationwide truce in Syria after two days of negotiations in the Kazakh capital, Reuters reported.

The Syrian government’s leader of negotiations Bashar Ja’afari welcomed the agreement but said a government offensive against rebels west of the capital would continue. The chief opposition negotiator Mohammed Alloush criticized the text of the agreement, saying it did not address the role of Iran-backed Shiite militias fighting in Syria.

The actual text did not elaborate on what the agreement would do besides consolidating a December 30 cease-fire that remains fragile.

The U.S. did not send a delegation to participate in the talks, but the State Department urged Russia, Turkey and Iran “to press regime, pro-regime and opposition forces to abide by the cease-fire in order to create an environment more conducive to intra-Syrian political discussions.”

In an effort to “accelerate the process” of ending the war, Russia gave Syrian rebels the draft of a new constitution to study, Russia’s envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev told reporters, Agence France-Presse reported.

Rebel sources at the Astana delegation told AFP they had refused to discuss the draft constitution with Russia, adding that “the Russians put the draft on the table and we didn’t even pick it up.”

More Civilians Killed by Turkish Offensive on Al-Bab

More civilian victims fell to a Turkish-backed military offensive in northern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monitor reported.

Turkish airstrikes and shelling on al-Bab in Aleppo province killed three women on Tuesday. Turkey launched an offensive on the town, held by the so-called Islamic State, last month – besieging al-Bab and suffering losses to the extremists.

The offensive on al-Bab is part of Turkey’s Euphrates Shield operation, launched in August. The latest deaths raise the civilian death toll since the start of the operation to 355.

The operation aims to push back ISIS from Turkey’s border, as well as target positions held by Syrian Kurdish forces, whom Ankara views as a threat.

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