Siege of al-Fu'ah and Kafriya
The siege of al-Fu'ah and Kefriya was a siege of the towns of al-Fu'ah and Kafriya in the Idlib Governorate, towns with majority Shia populations and controlled by the Syrian government during the Syrian civil war. The siege began with a Sunni Islamist rebel assault on the capital of the province in March 2015, resulting in the capture of Idlib. On 18 July 2018, the besieged government forces reached an agreement with Tahrir al-Sham-led rebels to evacuate them and civilians from the two towns.[10]
The siege[edit]
2015[edit]
On 28 March 2015, after four days of fighting, rebels captured Idlib city[21] and managed to besiege the towns of Kafriya and al‐Fu'ah,[22] resulting in thousands of civilians being trapped in the two settlements.[23] The Army of Conquest rebel alliance and one of its main components, al-Nusra Front, imposed a full siege, blocking all humanitarian supplies to the towns; the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported several executions of people accused of smuggling goods into Kafriya and al‐Fu'ah.[24]
In July 2015, the battle of Zabadani began as Hezbollah and the Syrian Army launched an offensive against rebel-held al-Zabadani, as part of the Qalamoun offensive. The pro-government attack on Zabadani and the concurrent rebel siege of Kafriya and al-Fu'ah became linked in negotiations.
On 2 August, Army of Conquest announced it would continue its operations against the besieged enclave of Kafriya and al-Fu'ah.[25] On 10 August, the rebels launched an assault on al-Fu'ah after detonating a car bomb and tunnel bomb, advancing towards it.[26] A temporary ceasefire in Zabadani and the two Idlib towns was put in place after negotiations between Ahrar al-Sham rebels and an Iranian delegation in Turkey, but these collapsed in late August after the government refused the rebel demand to release 1,500 female detainees, according to Ahrar al-Sham.[27]
Aftermath[edit]
During the evacuations, 126 unarmed civilians, the majority of which were children were killed via suicide bombing before they could make it into the safety of government-held territory. Following the evacuation, the surviving civilians from al-Fu'ah and Kafriya were mostly resettled to Hisyah in Homs Governorate and al-Basit in Latakia Governorate. Smaller numbers of refugees also moved to Aleppo, Damascus, Nubl, and al-Zahraa.[7]