Crossing between a government and opposition-held area in Syria closes after violence

IDLIB, Syria (AP) — A key crossing inside Syria between an area held by the government and one held by the opposition was closed again on Tuesday after violence followed its brief reopening this week.

A local activist and a war monitor said that opposition groups protested the reopening of the Abu al-Zandin crossing in Aleppo province, which had been closed since 2020, and that it was twice hit by artillery shelling.

A few trucks on Sunday moved through the crossing in what appeared to be a trial reopening. The move was met by protests and the crossing was hit by artillery shelling from an unknown source on Monday and again on Tuesday.

Reports of an initial planned reopening in June were met with angry protests by residents of the opposition-controlled area who saw the move as a step toward normalization with the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Sunday's trial reopening was followed again by protests and a sit-in at a tent erected by local activists.

The Britain-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the shelling. It was not clear who fired. The monitor also said that gunmen opposed to the opening of the crossing “forced a number of trucks to return” as they were headed into government-held territory.

An official with the Turkish-backed opposition government confirmed plans to reopen the crossing but denied it represented a step toward normalizing relations with Damascus. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.

“The opening of crossings, whether commercial or humanitarian ... is not linked to reconciliation,” he said and also gave the example of function crossings in Syria between areas that Ankara controls and areas that are under the control of Syrian Kurdish local authorities.

The official declined to elaborate or comment on the shelling.

The anti-government uprising turned civil war in Syria, now in its 14th year, has killed nearly half a million people, displaced half of its prewar population of 23 million and crippled infrastructure in both government and opposition-held areas.

The conflict today is largely frozen. In June, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Assad both signalled that they are interested in restoring diplomatic ties that have been ruptured for more than a decade. Several previous reconciliation attempts did not succeed.