Abu Duhur air base battle, from beginning to control; about 650 civilians and fighters, and members were killed within the control of 292 by the regime forces

More than 70 thousand civilians were displaced within 28 days from tens of villages towards the province of Idlib fleeing violent aerial and ground shelling

28 days of battles to control Abu Duhur air base, which began on the 25th of December 2015 until the 21st of January 2018, through which the regime forces managed to control large areas in the towns and villages and ended their operation till the moment by controlling the main goal of their operation, which is Abu Duhur air base, which they failed to reach from the southern countryside of Aleppo, and then the operation, led by Brigadier in the regime forces Suhail Al-Hassan, known as the “Tiger”, who also led the battles against the factions and Nusra Front (Qaeda organization in the Levant) and ISIS during the past years and managed to restore tens of kilometers within these battles.

The SOHR monitored the detail of the operation that extended from the northeastern countryside of Hama to the eastern and southeastern countryside of Idlib and the southern countryside of Idlib, where the regime forces controlled large areas and besieged ISIS and Hayaat Tahrir Al-Sham in a pocket located in adjacent countryside in the province of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo, where the SOHR monitored the regime forces backed by their allied militiamen of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities controlling at least 292 villages and towns, the largest number of them were located in Aleppo province, then Idlib and Hama, where the regime forces controlled the air base of Abu Duhur and began to sweep it in order to use to as military base, which the regime forces lost their control over it in the 1st third of September 2015, following a sudden attack by Hayaat Tahir Al-Sham and the factions in the area, making use of the bad weather and sand storm that hit the province of Idlib at that time, where the regime forces lost their last positions in the province of Idlib, and at that time they only controlled the towns of Kafria and Foua, which are mostly inhabited by Shiite people, and controlled by the National Defense Forces and Popular Committees. It is noteworthy that Abu Duhur has been besieged for more than 2 years by Nusra Front and the Islamic factions until they controlled it in 2015, and the air base was out of services and the regime forces stationed there and the warplanes were not able to implement any military operation out of it.

These violent battles and advancement by the regime forces were accompanied by unprecedented heavy ​fire​power used by the regime forces targeting villages, towns and cities in the countryside of Idlib by hundreds of raids, barrel bombs, shells and missiles, believed to be ground to ground, leaving hundreds of people killed and injured.

The SOHR documented the death of 126 civilians, including at least 40 children below the age of 18 and 30 women citizens over the 18, since the 25th of December until today, while tens of others were injured with permanent disabilities and sever injuries, which may increase the death toll, and the shelling also caused destruction of hundreds of houses and shops and properties, in addition to the damage to destruction in the infrastructure of areas which witnessed heavy shelling, in Idlib, Hama and Aleppo.

The battles that took place between Hayaat Tahrir Al-Sham, Islamic Turkestan, Noor Al-Din Al-Zenki Movement, Jaysh Al-Ahrar, Al-Sham Corps, Jaysh Al-Izza, Free Jaysh Idlib, Jaysh Al-Nokhaba, Al-Jaysh Al-Thani, Jaysh Al-Nasr, Ahrar Al-Sham Islamic Movement, against the regime forces and their allied militiamen of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities, caused human losses in the ranks of both parties, where the SOHR documented the death of 518 fighters and members who were killed within 28 members of the violent battles that took place in areas northeast of Hama and the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo. They are 221 members of the regime forces and their allied militiamen of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities including at least 20 officers, while 297 fighters of the rebel and Islamic factions, Hayaat Tahrir Al-Sham, Turkestan Islamic Party, including at least 103 fighters of non-Syrian nationalities of Hayaat Tahrir Al-Sham and Turkestan Islamic Party, and hundreds of both parties were inured with different severity, due to the artillery and aerial shelling, clashes and an exchange of targeting on the clash areas.

The SOHR monitored displacement of tens of thousands in the province of Idlib and the countryside of Hama and Aleppo towards the countryside of Idlib, and the number of displaced people reached more than 170 thousand, who were displaced from villages, towns and Abu Duhur area and the area of Sinjar, Saraqeb and the countryside of Ma’erat Al-Noa’man and the southern countryside of Idlib witnessed the displacement from the northern and northeastern countryside of Hama and the southern countryside of Aleppo, towards the center and the north of Idlib, where the civilians tried to flee for their lives and reach areas far from the death, amid bad humanitarian condition and shortage in areas of the displaced and lack of food to meet their needs, and the SOHR monitored the citizens displaced the countryside of Idlib from the houses to plastic houses, which are used for planting of vegetable, to flee the cold, rains, and bad weather in the area.