Dozens Killed and Injured in Car Bomb Explosion in Idlib, Syria

The explosion of a car bomb on Sunday evening, January 7, in the city of Idlib, Syria, has left 23 dead and dozens injured. This news has been reported by international news agencies citing Syrian human rights activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, with France Press quoting the Observatory as reporting the deaths of 7 civilians. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in the UK, monitors events in the Syrian civil war relying on eyewitness reports, and according to Reuters, this bombing targeted the main headquarters of one of the opposition groups in northwestern Idlib. Reuters noted that the nature of the attack is still unclear. Associated Press also mentioned images published on two news sites associated with Syrian activists, stating that significant damage was inflicted on buildings and vehicles in what appears to be the main street of Idlib. The Associated Press reports that no group has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing. Idlib is the center of a province of the same name, controlled by several different rebel groups, the main one being Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which was previously known as Jabhat al-Nusra and was affiliated with al-Qaeda. This attack occurred on the same day that a state-affiliated television in Syria claimed that government forces had recently recaptured a strategically important city in Idlib province. According to the Associated Press, the city recaptured by Syrian government forces is called Sinjar. This city was under government control until 2015, but after that, some jihadist groups took it out of government control, and in 2017, it fell under the control of Jabhat al-Nusra militants. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that the recapture of Sinjar paves the way for government forces to move towards the Abu Dhuhur military base, which is currently held by rebels. This military base was also taken from forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad after two years of siege by rebels in 2015. Recently, Syrian government forces, with the support of Russian air power, have begun advances in Idlib province, hoping to secure their control over the main transportation route from Aleppo to Damascus. Idlib is one of the last strongholds under the control of armed opponents of Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria, and according to the United Nations, more than 2.5 million people currently live there, including one million who have been displaced from other conflict areas in Syria. Since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011, over 340,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced. Meanwhile, over the past two years, Russian intervention in support of forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad, along with the presence of Iranian military forces and Iran-backed militia groups, has shifted the balance in favor of Syrian government forces, allowing the army to reclaim many areas from Assad's opposition groups.