The war in Syria is not over. It seems strange having to write that, but after eight years of grinding violence some feel that it has been timed out and that discussions about refugees returning or how the country will be rebuilt are ready to begin.
For those of us who see the reality on the ground, the story is somewhat different. Idlib province in the northwest was home to some 1.5 million Syrians before the war, but today that number is estimated at 3 million as those displaced from other parts of the country have been concentrated there. Despite the horrors to date, the battles of Aleppo, Ghouta, Homs and Daraa to name a few, the worst may be yet to come.
At the start of May, just before Ramadan, intense air strikes and artillery resumed in Idlib, killing scores of Syrians, wounding hundreds and forcing 250,000 people to flee and move deeper into the province.
