Hundreds of Turkey-backed rebels to leave areas to al-Qaida-linked militants in northern Syria

Source:Xinhua News Agency Date:11Jan2019

The HTS succeeded to capture the entire western countryside of Aleppo and expanded its operation to the countryside of Idlib and Hama last week.

The developments cast doubts on the future of the demilitarized zone’s deal established by Turkey and Russia last September as the areas that are witnessing rebel-on-rebel fighting are included in the deal.

According to the Turkey, Russia-backed deal, the HTS should have withdrawn from the demilitarized zones which didn’t materialize; on the contrary, the group is expanding on the expense of the Turkey-backed rebels.