Syria opposition accuses regime of Damascus ‘assassination’

Syrian government forces walk in the village of al-Hajib, near Jabal al-Hass, in the southern part of Aleppo province, on Sunday. (AFP)

BEIRUT: Syria’s leading opposition body on Saturday blamed the government for the mysterious death of one of its members after a car accident in the capital Damascus.
Munir Darwish, 80, was a writer and founder of a Cairo-based opposition group seen as “tolerated” by President Bashar Assad’s government.
He joined the mainstream Syrian Negotiations Committee (SNC) in November but continued to live in Damascus.
The SNC said Darwish was the victim of “a hit-and-run outside his home in Damascus, followed by a premeditated elimination (killing)” on Friday night.
“We hold the tyrannical Assad regime responsible for Munir Darwish’s death,” the SNC said in a statement, referring to the incident as an “assassination.”
Firas Al-Khalidi, who heads the Cairo Platform, told AFP that the exact cause of death remained unclear.
After the car accident, Darwish underwent ankle surgery at the capital’s Mawasat Hospital and was in “excellent health,” awaiting release on Saturday, he said.
“At around midnight on Friday, they called to say he’s dead. I found out from his son,” he said.
Khalidi said Darwish had not left Syria since late November out of fear for his safety, even though both his sons and wife lived abroad.
“He clearly hinted that there were threats,” Khalidi added, without directly accusing the government.
“Who has an interest in his assassination, except those who hate Syria — with the regime at the top of the list?” Khalidi told AFP.
A statement from the office of Syria’s UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said he was “shocked and saddened” to hear of Darwish’s death.
Meanwhile, Syrian troops have recaptured dozens of towns and villages from opposition fighters, a monitor said Sunday, bringing them closer to a key military airport in the country’s northwest.
“In the past 24 hours, regime forces have taken at least 79 villages in the southern parts of Aleppo province, an area near the Abu Duhur military airport,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
Russia-backed regime troops are aiming to reach the Abu Duhur base as part of a weeks-long assault against Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which is dominated by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate.
The offensive has seen Syrian forces seize surrounding territory in the provinces of Aleppo and Hama as they close in on Abu Duhur, which lies just inside the Idlib province.
They briefly broke into the air base this week from the south but were ousted in a ferocious counter-offensive by opposition fighters.
With the latest push in Aleppo province, Abdel Rahman said, army troops were seeking to open a new front on the airport’s northern and eastern flanks.
“Regime troops lost control of those villages in southern Aleppo province in 2012,” he said.
“They are advancing quickly now because of HTS’s collapse, and the withdrawal of its fighters and those of other groups from the area,” Abdel Rahman added.
Syrian daily Al-Watan, which is close to the government, also reported that the army was “encircling” the airport.
The airport straddles the border between Aleppo and Idlib, the last province in the country outside the government’s control.
In addition to the base, the regime hopes to secure a key patch of highway running through Idlib that links the northern city of Aleppo with the capital Damascus further south.
Opposition fighters overran Idlib province over the course of several months in 2015, capturing Abu Duhur in September of that year.