Save Syria's Idlib from fate of Aleppo, UN envoy pleads
The UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday urged the world to prevent a fresh humanitarian disaster in the rebel-held region of Idlib, as officials warned aid funding was running "desperately short". Mistura told a major donor conference that Idlib, the likely next target of the Syrian regime's fightback, risked suffering the same fate as Aleppo, seized in a Russian-backed Syrian offensive in 2016, and Eastern Ghouta, retaken by the regime shortly after an alleged chemical attack in early April. Donor countries, aid organisations and UN agencies are gathering in Brussels for the seventh annual conference on Syria's future, as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad launched a new offensive against Islamic State jihadists entrenched in a southern district of Damascus.