IDLIB: Thousands took to the streets of Syria’s rebel-held northwest on Friday to mark 13 years since pro-democracy protests swept the country, chanting against President Bashar Al-Assad and the region’s jihadist rulers. The government’s brutal suppression of the 2011 uprising triggered a civil war that has killed more than half a million people, drawn in foreign armies and jihadists, and divided the country.

Former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) now controls a significant swathe of the northwest, where hundreds have taken to the streets in recent weeks against HTS leader Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, with anger simmering over the death of a man in the group’s custody.

Hundreds of protesters paraded the rebel flag through the city of Idlib, with many brandishing placards that read “Down with Jolani ... Assad”. Protester Mohammed Harnoush, 35, said the anniversary was a reminder that “our revolution is against everyone... whether it is Bashar al-Assad or Jolani”. “This people shall not be ruled by iron and fire,” he said, speaking in the city’s main square.

The rebel-held region around Idlib hosts about three million people, many of whom fled other parts of the country held or recaptured by Assad’s Russian and Iranian-backed government.

Khalidia Agha, 72, was among hundreds in Idlib city chanting against Jolani and Assad. She said government forces killed one of her sons, while two others disappeared into HTS prisons six years ago. She has not heard from them since. “I am protesting today because my children are jailed ... All I ask for is to see them and know where they are,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.

‘Grim downwards trends’

In the southern, government-held city of Sweida, hundreds took to the streets to mark the anniversary, footage from the Suwayda24 media outlet showed.

It followed around seven months of anti-government demonstrations in the wider Sweida region, the heartland of Syria’s Druze minority, which has largely been spared from the war.

Since 2020, protests against deteriorating economic conditions have erupted sporadically in Sweida, with the latest wave starting after the government cut fuel subsidies in August.

In a joint statement to mark the anniversary, Britain, France, Germany and the United States said the Sweida protests “show that the demands for peace, freedom and dignity that led to protests 13 years ago endure”. “The war in Syria is not over,” the quartet said, pointing to government bombardments of rebel-held areas and Islamic State group attacks.

They rejected any normalization of relations with the Assad regime, which was readmitted to the Arab League last year, until “there is authentic, meaningful and enduring progress towards a political solution”.

On Friday, the UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, warned that after 13 years of war, the country was “without a political solution in sight”. “We must prioritize peace. If we do not do so, the grim downward trends across nearly all indicators in Syria will only continue in the year ahead,” Pedersen said.

Some 7.2 million people have sought refuge from the fighting inside Syria while millions more have fled the country. The United Nations has said that this year 16.7 million people in Syria will require some type of humanitarian assistance or protection — the largest number since the conflict erupted in 2011.

About 90 percent of Syrians live in poverty, according to UN figures. Almost 7.5 million children in Syria will need humanitarian assistance in 2024, more than at any other time during the conflict, according to the UN child welfare agency UNICEF. — AFP