Assad visits Idlib, says region’s battle is key to ending Syrian war

Defeating jihadists in Idlib is the key to ending Syria’s eight-year-old civil war, President Bashar Assad said Tuesday on his first visit to the northwestern region since 2011, AFP reported.

“The battle of Idlib is the basis for resolving chaos and terrorism in all other areas of Syria,” Assad’s office quoted him as telling troops in the frontline town of Al-Hbeit.

His comments came as Syrian troops continued to deploy in parts of the north where they are supporting Kurdish forces to contain a Turkish invasion, according to state news agency SANA.

The Idlib region, which has some three million residents, half of them displaced from other parts of the country, is the last major rebel bastion in Syria.