The 'Alawite Canton' is no more than nightmare will come true as the Damascus officials see a solid truth that Bashar al-Assad will not be th' lifetime president despite the Russian and Iranian support.
Coming back to almost 100-year-old draft of a state for Alawites, the poor sect of Shiite Islam. The six-year-old war and the recent statements by Donald Trump's administration pushed the Assad regime to secure borders on the de facto state for Assad family in coastal region by powerful Russian military bases in Latakia and Tartus or by seeking to capture rich and strategic towns in the neighboring Idlib province.
Many procedures and steps have already been achieved, like founding the University of Tartus, enhancing the Airport of Hmaymim, added to control te whole countryside of Latakia after displacing most of its Sunni residents.
The Syrian regime aims to include the whole area Western of Orontes river within its canton, therefore it needs to control the countryside of Idlib reaching to the city of Jisr al-Shughour.
For months, the Syrian regime has worked on that goal, as it intensified the warplane bombing over the city of Idlib, reaching to around 150 air raid per months, added to targeting the infrastructure to force its people to leave, and it succeeded in displacing more than a quarter of its population.
Russian forces seems to support the Syrian regime it its plan, as the Russian warplanes help in bombing the town and prevent the rebels’ faction from liberating al-Akrad and Turkmen mountains.
Activists mentioned that regime is working on discontinuing the supply route and transportation between the Western countryside of Idlib that adjacent to Latakia countryside, and the city of Jisr al-Shughour by targeting the area with all kinds of weapons like barrels bombs, rockets, cluster bombs and napalm.
Military experts anticipated that regime aims to prepare the area of western countryside of Idlib to include it within the sectarian canton on the coastal area.
Mohammed Hamado, a lieutenant colonel and commander in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) confirmed that the regime aims to control the whole mountainous area overlooking al-Ghab Plain in the west in order to reduce the risk of rebels and prevent their advance to the coast.
“the regime aims to control the city of Jisr al-Shoghour, as it considered a geographic expansion of the countryside of Latakia and one of the most important entrance to the city from the East.
The city of Jir al-Shughour is situated in the North West of al-Ghab Plain, it has been for long known as a city of the opposition, as the Syrian regime had committed a massacre in the beginning of Eighties last century. And it was the city where the armed opposition was born.
Rebels liberated the city in April 2015, which put the main military camp in Jorin under the mercy of the rebels, which led to heavy clashes and battles in al-Ghab Plain
