Syrian rebel leader pleads for outside help a week on from earthquakes

A Syrian rebel leader with a $10m (£8.3m) US government bounty on his head has appealed for urgent international aid to help the north-west province of Idlib after the earthquakes that have killed thousands and brought the last opposition-controlled area to its knees.

Jolani was officially designated a terrorist by the US in 2013 because of his former leadership of al-Nusra Front, a splinter group of al-Qaida. Jolani now heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group that claims to have made a break with its past in an effort to secure links and support from the outside world.

While Washington has lifted sanctions on earthquake aid to Damascus, a political fight continues between international actors, the rebel administration in north-west Syria and the government of Bashar al-Assad over how to ensure that aid safely reaches badly affected areas around Aleppo.

Some international actors have proposed the reopening of other crossings into northern Syria, notably Bab al-Salam, which leads to areas in the far north of Aleppo province still under rebel control.

Many in rebel-held areas, including Jolani, say the Assad regime cannot be trusted to deliver aid, and that humanitarian assistance should pass via the north-west and into other areas affected by the quake, which has left an estimated 5.3 million people homeless in Syria.

Jolani and others in the north-west insist the crossing has remained open but the aid that has been sent by the UN is insufficient. Fifty-two trucks have brought aid into north-west Syria in the week since the earthquake struck.

Jolani and HTS were keen to welcome any international presence in Idlib to see the scale of the crisis, and to play down the former links to al-Qaida. A 4x4 filled with masked armed men tailed journalists as they toured the province, allegedly a security force rather than a militia.