Militants declare new war despite Syria truce

Foreign-backed militant groups announce a new war against Syrian government forces after threatening to abandon UN-brokered talks in Geneva.

Factions fighting under the banner of Turkey-based Free Syrian Army and Ahrar al-Sham said in a statement Monday that they would respond "with force" against the government which is currently fighting Daesh and Nusra Front in Aleppo. 

Militants later launched a fierce attack against government forces in Latakia province and the strategic Ghab plain in Hama province, the Observatory for Human Rights said.

The British-based group claimed that the militants had almost completely taken over the town of Khirbat al-Naqus in Hama.

The declaration of war came after the Saudi-backed opposition threatened to abandon the UN-brokered talks if there is no progress on its demand for a political transition away from President Bashar al-Assad.

Representatives of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said that the Geneva peace talks could collapse if Damascus refused to negotiate Assad's fate.

“We might suspend (our participation in) the talks if things carry on this way, and then there will be no prospect for any political solution,” HNC member Abdulhakim Bashar said.

The opposition insists on Assad’s resignation. The government says the fate of Assad is “a red line” and only the Syrian people can decide about it.

Opposition accuses UN envoy

Opposition groups on Monday accused UN envoy Staffan de Mistura of bias towards Damascus and urged their negotiators to take a firmer stance at Geneva peace talks.

A letter signed by "armed revolutionary factions" urged the HNC to "take firm and decisive stances towards the half-solutions being propagated by the regime's allies, and de Mistura."

De Mistura floated the idea of President Assad remaining in power in exchange for the opposition's nomination of three Syrian vice-presidents. The opposition dismissed the suggestion outright.

Syria has rejected the idea of a transitional governing body, saying instead Assad could broaden the government to include opposition and independent figures.

Government representatives and a coalition of opposition groups are engaged in talks in Geneva aimed at finding a political solution to the Syrian conflict.

Divisions in opposition 

The last round of talks came to a halt on March 24 over disagreements on the role of President Assad in Syria’s future.

Mohammed Alloush, the chief negotiator of the HNC, said Sunday that there could be “no compromise” on Assad’s ouster, calling for the resumption of attacks on government forces.

“Don't trust the regime and don't wait for their pity,” Alloush wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “Strike them at their necks. Strike them everywhere.”

Other figures of the opposition, however, said that Alloush’s comments did not represent the HNC’s stance.

"Alloush's position is personal. We as the HNC cannot adopt this position,” Yahya al-Aridi, a member of the HNC who is in Geneva, said.

Alloush is among senior figures of the Jaish al-Islam militant group and has reportedly spent most of his life in Saudi Arabia.

A truce, brokered by the US and Russia, went into effect across Syria on February 27. However, it does not apply to terrorist groups such as Daesh and al-Qaeda’s Syria branch al-Nusra Front.

The foreign-sponsored conflict has left over 470,000 people dead since it began in March 2011, according to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research.

The tally represents a dramatic increase from the 270,000 fatalities reported by the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which stopped independently counting Syria’s death toll early in 2014.

Syrian forces have managed to liberate many militant-held areas over the past few months.

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