AZAZ, (Syria): Three members of the United States Congress made a rare visit Sunday to rebel-held territory in northern Syria controlled by pro-Turkish factions, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
The bipartisan delegation comprising Joe Wilson, Victoria Spartz and Dean Phillips entered Syria from Turkey through the Bab al-Salama border crossing, where they were welcomed by a banner reading “Welcome to Free Syria” and revolutionary flags.
The delegation visited a hospital in the city of Azaz in Aleppo province and met orphans of the Syrian civil war, which has killed more than 500,000 people since it erupted in 2011.
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The visit’s “purpose is to see the reality of the liberated areas”, Yasser el-Hajji, spokesperson for the Turkey-backed interim government, told AFP.
However, the delegation’s visit had to be curtailed for security reasons, a member of their escort told AFP.
The jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) controls much of Syria’s last pocket of armed opposition, which includes a significant part of Idlib province as well as bordering territories of Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces.
Other rebel factions, supported by Turkey to varying degrees, also control parts of northern Syria.
“To avoid sparking controversy in the United States, they ultimately did not proceed towards Jindayris in the territories controlled by HTS,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. HTS, which is lead by the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, is classified as a terrorist group by Washington.
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