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Khan Sheikhoun: Syria rebels pull out of key town after five years
Source: BBC
Khan Sheikhoun: Syria rebels pull out of key town after five years
20 August 2019
Syrian opposition forces have withdrawn from the strategic town of Khan Sheikhoun, deep in the last rebel-held province.
Government forces, backed by Russia, closed in on the town in recent weeks, five years after rebels took over.
Rebels told the BBC that fighters pulled out of the town on Tuesday.
But an official statement from the main jihadist group in Idlib province, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), characterised it as a "redeployment" of forces.
The fate of the town seemed to be in flux on Tuesday, as the UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported it had fallen to government forces.
-snip-
20 August 2019
Syrian opposition forces have withdrawn from the strategic town of Khan Sheikhoun, deep in the last rebel-held province.
Government forces, backed by Russia, closed in on the town in recent weeks, five years after rebels took over.
Rebels told the BBC that fighters pulled out of the town on Tuesday.
But an official statement from the main jihadist group in Idlib province, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), characterised it as a "redeployment" of forces.
The fate of the town seemed to be in flux on Tuesday, as the UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported it had fallen to government forces.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49404741