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With the fall of Aleppo in December 2016 the morale of the rebels was badly shaken. The regime with the aid of Russia, Iran, Hzbollah and Shia militias from Pakistan and Afghanistan vowed to take back the main rebel province of Idlib, which is densely populated.
After their defeat in Aleppo the main ultra conservative Jihadi rebel groups of Ahrar Asham and Jabhat Fath Asham (JFS) unsuccessfully tried to merge into a single operation room, fearing the next regime move into their main heart land "Idlib".
Syria Power Map
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| HTS operation room for Hamah |
In the meantime Astana talks were in progress between the rebels and the regime. In the talks one of the main focus was separating the main Jihadi group, JFS, from the opposition.
Sensing the danger JFS transformed into Hayyat Tahrir Asham (HTS) after merging with numerous small rebel groups, so as to further distance itself from Al-Qeada. This happened without any change in the attitude of Russia and the Syrian regime.
After the failure of Astana talks the rebels started a surprise offensive in Darra near regime's heartland of Damascus. After gaining considerable ground the rebels were surprised by ISIS from behind which managed to kill more than 70 rebels, most of them in cold blood. This front felt cold soon. However the rebels knew they had to strike somewhere else to divert regime and Russian attention from Idlib. So the next rebel target came to be the province of Hamah.
On 20 March rebels started the battle for Hamah, making huge gains and finally reaching the gates of Hamah city. Regime had no other option left but to call forces from different front lines after which they managed to take back some of the lost areas. The rebels meanwhile inflicted huge losses on the regime.
This made the regime intensify their aerial bombardment on Hamah, Derra, besieged Qabun and Idlib. When the rebels were still showing deterrence, Russian warplanes started dropping Naplam and Thermite bombs.
When even that didn't work the regime finally decided to use the nerve agent, Sarin gas in Khan Sheikhun locality of Idlib province. Although the regime contradicted the rebels claims of it using Sarin gas but the numerous independent journalists, White helmets and doctors in particular showed video evidence of the patients effected by the gas.
Those videos created a huge impact and in no time the hashtag #IdlibGasAttack was trending. Which made the American first daughter, Ivanka Trump and other prominent congressmen tweet in favor of the victims and against Assad and Russia.
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| One of the killed regime soldier |
The US navy was soon stretching arms for direct action in Syria but this time against Assad. Its USS Ross and USS Porter Navy destroyers rained down 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles on the Syrian airfield of Shayrat, from where the gas attack is alleged to have taken place.
Speculations are heating about the strikes being a possible American image builder among the Sunni Arab population of Syria as the Russians were informed in advance to move out of the airfield, prior to the strikes and only a handful of 4 regime soldiers were actually killed in the strikes that destroyed the whole Shayrat airport.
However Russia still seems to be genuinely angry at US for dismantling their airport. As a reaction it cancelled the Air-Safety pact agreement with the US. Which was about the safety of US and Russian planes while sharing the same airspace.
This should not at all be seen as an escalation to the point of stirring WW3. However the attitude of some US congressmen is quite serious. Senator Jhon McCain was not only critical of Assad, he took it to a new level stating that Russia was as bad as Assad. It seems as if almost all of Trump's political opponents are supporting Trump's action. Hillary Clinton being one of them.
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