About 20 people, mostly militants, were killed Tuesday in violent clashes between the opposition factions and the al-Sham Liberation Organization in western Aleppo province in the north of the country, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Sham Liberation Organization (formerly the Nasra Front) and militant factions affiliated with the National Liberation Front (FNL) control Idlib (northwest) and parts of its adjacent provinces, including the western Aleppo countryside. The region has also witnessed inter-factional fighting between rival factions.
The "Liberation of the Sham" on Monday accused the movement of Nur al-Din Zanki, one of the most prominent components of the National Liberation Front supported by Ankara, killing five of its members, to launch an attack directly against their positions in the western Aleppo countryside bordering Idlib.
"The clashes on Tuesday killed 17 fighters, including 12 from the Sham Liberation Organization and five from Zanki, as well as two civilians, including a nurse," the director of the observatory Rami Abdul Rahman told AFP.
The ongoing clashes also resulted in the injury of about 35 elements.
During the attack on the movement of Nour al-Din Zanki, active mainly in the west of Aleppo, controlled two villages and then stormed the town of Dara Azza, where the battles continue, according to the observatory.
Other FNL factions joined the fighting alongside Nurreddine Zanki, according to the observatory, which indicated that pro-Kurdish factions in northeastern Aleppo were also sending reinforcements to confront the Sham Liberation Organization.
Idlib and the adjacent areas have been in tension for two years between the Liberation of the Sham and other factions, led by the movements of "Ahrar Sham" and "Noor Eddin Zanki."
In the wake of internal fighting repeated in 2017 and 2018, the organization, being the most powerful and organized, was able to expel the factions from large areas, and took control of the largest area of ​​the region, while other factions are spread in limited areas.
Idlib and its environs are a Turkish area of ​​influence, with Turkish observation posts spread over them.
Russia and Turkey reached an agreement on 17 September to establish a demilitarized zone at a depth of 15 to 20 kilometers. Ankara announced weeks after the completion of the withdrawal of heavy weapons, but the second phase of the agreement has not yet been implemented as it was supposed to withdraw fighters jihadists, led by the Liberation of the Sham from the region.
