Syrian rebels kill 20 regime troops in Idlib ambush

Twenty Syrian regime troops were killed in a surprise rebel attack in Idlib province on Wednesday, The New Arab-affiliated media has reported.

A correspondent for Syria TV said that the opposition fighters had captured an abandoned regime base in southeastern Idlib province, where the regime has been trying to advance recently, following the ambush.

Syrian rebels say that they have killed over 100 regime troops in ground attacks this month, in retaliation for an intense aerial bombardment campaign by the regime and Russia which has killed hundreds of civilians since November.

Negotiations between Turkey, Russia, and Iran and representatives of the regime and opposition concluded on Wednesday in the Kazakh capital Nursultan, formerly known as Astana.

The participants expressed their hope that a recent lull in fighting would continue in Idlib province, without committing to a ceasefire.

Read more: Assad wants to obliterate Idlib. Can Turkey stop him?

The meeting's final communique mentioned the need to "end the presence" of Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib, the formerly Al-Qaeda linked Islamist extremist group which dominates most of the rebel-held province.

Over 500,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Idlib province as a result of regime aerial and ground offensives since April 2019.

Many have been forced to take shelter in fields and olive groves because there is no room for them in already overcrowded refugee camps.

Idlib is currently home to approximately 3 million people, about half of them displaced from other parts of Syria.

Humanitarian groups fear that winter rains and floods currently affecting the province will cause even greater hardship to homeless displaced people in the province.

In previous years, cold conditions have killed many refugees and children have frozen to death.