The dominant alliance in Syria’s last major insurgent bastion of Idlib province said Sunday it would continue to fight, hours before a deadline for the jihadists to pull out of a planned buffer zone, AFP reported.
“We have not abandoned our choice of jihad and fighting towards implementing our blessed revolution,” said Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance led by al-Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate.
HTS did not say whether it agreed with or rejected a Russian-Turkey deal agreed last month to set up the demilitarized area around the northwestern region of Idlib to fend off a regime assault.
The accord is just the latest in a series of truces in Syria’s seven-year conflict, which has killed more than 360,000 and displaced millions.