DESPERATE IN IDLIB - THE FLOW OF AID IS TAINTED BY POLITICAL SQUABBLES

A Syrian rebel leader with a $10 m US government bounty on his head has appealed for urgent international aid to help the province of Idlib after the earthquake that killed thousands and brought the last opposition-controlled area to its knees.

- Ruth Michaelson

“The United Nations needs to understand that it’s required to help in a crisis,” said Ahmed Hussein al-Shara, better known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohamm ad al-Jolani, amid a humanitarian crisis that had already reached critical levels in Idlib before the twin earthquakes last week.

Jolani was designated a  terrorist by the US in 2013 because of his former leadership of the al-Nusra Front, a splinter group of al-Qaida. Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a  group that claims to have made a break with its past in an effort to secure links and support from the outside world.

“From the first hour of the earthquake, we sent messages to the United Nations asking for aid,” he told the Guardian in Idlib. “Unfortunately no support for our search and rescue teams arrived, as well as no specific aid to combat this crisis.”