Idlib, northwestern Syria – Shaher Masri and his family heard bombs near their home shortly after midday prayers on the first day of the new year.
The Syrian regime and its Russian allies had not allowed any pause during the holidays, this time bombing a bakery a few meters from the house where Masri, 29, his wife and four children have lived in the village for four years. by Jakid al. -Adas, near Darat Izza in northwestern Syria.
“I have never seen anything more horrible. When we ventured out we found a man who had died while buying bread and breakfast for his family,” Masri told Al Jazeera.
That afternoon, artillery repeatedly attacked the city, frightening civilians and damaging buildings, including a bakery, a mosque, a market, and an electrical installation.
The attack was part of a general assault on the villages of Darat Izza, Kabashin and Burj Haidar in the countryside west of Aleppo, which killed six people and wounded 11 more, including four children, a baby and two women.
It followed the bombing of the city of Idlib the previous day and Israeli airstrikes against the airports in Aleppo and Neirab, as well as several points belonging to the Syrian regime south of Aleppo, on Saturday.
Nada al-Rashed, director of the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets), told Al Jazeera that Syrians had welcomed the new year with the same reason with which they had said goodbye to the previous one: “with bloodshed.”
Masri and his family, originally from Jakid al-Adas in Aleppo governorate, have already been displaced several times within northwestern Syria. They will not move again, despite the repeated bombardments of Darat Izza; They say it doesn’t make much sense.
But Masri remains hopeful. “We hope to get rid of [Syrian president] Assad in our new year,” he said.
Targeting civilians
The regime aims to destabilize the population by destroying civilian infrastructure, al-Rashed said. “The lack of accountability and impunity for the crimes committed by the Syrian regime is what gave it the green light to continue its attacks without deterrence.”
Yahya Sheikh Mohammed, 30, nephew of the man killed near the bakery, told Al Jazeera that he feels like he lives “in the midst of constant death.”
He ran out into the street after the attack to retrieve the body of his aunt’s husband, Mohammed said.
“We found another dead person while we were transporting the old man.”
By organizing these attacks, the Syrian regime hopes to drive a wedge between rural northern Aleppo – controlled by Turkey – and Idlib and rural western Aleppo – under the command of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an ally of the opposition government. Syrian and classified as a “terrorist” by the regime – Mustafa al-Naimi, a journalist based in Turkey, told Al Jazeera.
“Under the pretext of ‘terrorism’, the Idlib governorate remains exposed to artillery and missile bombardment, as well as airstrikes,” said al-Naimi, who is also a researcher at the Arab Forum for Iranian Policy Analysis.
He added that the military operations also prevented people living there from feeling safe and scared away any investment, which has added to Idlib’s deep economic stagnation.
More than 90 percent of the region’s population lives in poverty and depends on international aid. However, the arrival of aid was severely restricted last July when Russia vetoed a UN Security Council vote on the renewal of a cross-border aid mechanism through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey.
The regime may also be expressing its anger at not being able to respond to the Israeli bombing of Iranian sites by attacking Israeli or American bases east of the Euphrates, al-Naimi added.
‘Stronger than ever’ – opposition leader
Syria’s northwestern region has been subject to a ceasefire agreement negotiated in 2020 with the help of Russia and Turkey. Still, the regime and its allied forces have repeatedly violated this agreement: on at least 1,200 occasions in the past year alone, according to the White Helmets.
Al-Naimi said the opposition factions that control the northwest may not have the military capacity to mount a strong enough defense against the bombings.
However, opposition leaders remain defiant.
“Our options are open and we have the capacity to respond to attacks,” Khattab al-Shami, military commander of the opposition faction group al-Fatah al-Mubin, told Al Jazeera.
“Today we are stronger than ever and possess military capabilities and initiative, while our enemy lost them years ago,” al-Shami said. “The battle of liberation is approaching, God willing, and everything that happens today is a prologue to it.”
He disagreed that the Syrian regime’s bombing was aimed at separating northwest Syria, noting that the bombing had targeted areas under Turkish control, including Afrin in the countryside around Aleppo.
He considers that the regime’s escalation in the last four months has been “an attempt to restore stolen sovereignty” after having been bombed several times by Israel.
Keeping people living outside its control in a constant state of displacement and fear is the regime’s way of “getting back at them while increasing their suffering during the winter.”
Attacking civilian infrastructure is also a way to divert attention from the fact that the regime is unable to meet the needs of the population living in the areas under its control, al-Shami said.
“It is intensifying the bombing of the liberated zone to hide the serious economic, political and social problems suffered by its areas.”
