Syria assault may spark humanitarian calamity

Its hospitals are battered, residents heavily dependent on aid and escape routes to neighbouring Turkey sealed. If attacked by government forces, Syria's rebel-held Idlib is poised for a humanitarian calamity.

The northwestern province, which lies along the border with Turkey, has been held since 2015 by the jihadist-led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance and other rival rebels.

Idlib and slivers of adjacent provinces form the largest remaining block of rebel territory -- and the next expected target of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops and their Russian allies.

But a military assault could overwhelm already struggling health facilities, cut off food and medical supplies to desperate civilians, and prompt massive levels of displacement, the United Nations has warned.

Activists said violence could force as many as 800,000 people to flee in one of the Syrian war's largest displacements yet. The question, aid groups have warned, is where to.

Turkey already hosts more than three million Syrian refugees and since 2015 has kept its border sealed to any more.

Meanwhile, rebels from Idlib have blown up two key bridges in a bid to hamper an expected government assault.

In recent days, both the government and its ally Russia have stepped up their rhetoric against the rebel presence in Idlib, which is dominated by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadist alliance formed by al-Qaeda's former Syrian branch, Al-Nusra Front.