Syria’s Assad visits Idlib front line: presidency

Damascus (AFP) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited government troops on the front line with jihadists in Idlib Tuesday, his first visit to the northwestern province since the start of the conflict.

“President Assad meets members of the Syrian army on the front line in the town of Hbeit in the Idlib countryside,” the president’s office said on its social media networks. 

The Idlib region of some three million people has been protected by a Russian-brokered ceasefire deal since August 31, but skirmishes persist on the ground.