Q&A: Syria's Assad sets sights on Idlib, the final showdown?

BEIRUT (AP) — After eight months of relative calm, Syria's northwestern province of Idlib is once again a theater for bloody military operations: heavy bombardment, airstrikes and waves of civilian displacement as Syrian government troops, backed by Russia, push their way into the rebel-held enclave in a widening offensive.

The violence of the past week threatens to completely unravel a crumbling cease-fire agreement reached between Turkey and Russia at the Black Sea resort of Sochi in September last year, which averted a potentially devastating assault by the Syrian government to retake the province.

"There are no good options when it comes to Idlib," an analysis by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group concluded in March, explaining why the province has oscillated between stagnation and bursts of bloodshed for years.

The area is among the last in the war-shattered country outside President Bashar Assad's control — and the last area still held by rebels. Confident in the support from Russia, Assad has pledged to recover the province and every other inch of Syrian territory lost during the war.

Here's a look at the rebellious region, and the fighting taking place:

WHY IS IDLIB IMPORTANT?

For Assad, Idlib stands in the way of final victory against the armed opposition. After eight years of war, he has largely quashed the popular revolt that erupted against his family's decades-long rule in 2011, which was inspired by the Arab Spring protests that swept the region that year.

On the Syria conflict map, Idlib province in the country's northwestern corner bordering Turkey forms a green-colored, rebel-controlled region surrounded by a sea of red, code for Syrian government control. Recapturing it would constitute a definitive defeat for opposition forces that...