Foreign fighters in Syria’s Idlib face last stand
Hailing from far and wide, they flocked to Syria to wage what they called “A Holy War”.
However, now foreign jihadists face a fight-to-the-last, to hold onto Idlib, their final bastion.
Syrian troops, backed by Russia and Iran, have massed around the northwestern province ahead of an expected onslaught against the largest rebel-held zone left in the country.
Since 2015, Idlib has been home to a complex array of anti-regime forces which include; secular rebels, Islamists, Syrian jihadists with ties to Al-Qaeda – and their foreign counterparts.
The non-Syrians include; fighters from Uzbekistan, Chechnya and China’s ethnic Uighur minority who ‘cut their teeth’ in other wars but then swarmed to Syria to take up the cause.