Kafr Nabl ( ar, كَفْرنَبِل, Kafr Nabil, also spelled Kafranbel or Kafr Nabil) is a town administratively belonging to the

Idlib Governorate Idlib Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة ادلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Idlib'') is one of the 14 governorates of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay province to the north, Aleppo Governorate to the east, H ...

and Ma'arrat al-Numan District in northwestern

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. It is situated above sea level. In the 2004 census by the Syrian Central Bureau of Statistics Kafr Nabl had a population of 15,455. In the early 1960s it had a population of about 1,200. Kafr Nabl's inhabitants are predominantly

Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagre ...

History

Kafr Nabl is located on an ancient

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

dead city, and is surrounded by some of the most important

Dead Cities The Dead Cities ( ar, المدن الميتة) or Forgotten Cities ( ar, المدن المنسية) are a group of 700 abandoned settlements in northwest Syria between Aleppo and Idlib. Around 40 villages grouped in eight archaeological parks sit ...

, such as

Serjilla Serjilla ( ar, سيرجيلة) is one of the best preserved of the Dead Cities in northwestern Syria, containing about 700 sites. It is located in the Jebel Riha, approximately 65 km north from Hama and 80 km southwest from Aleppo, ve ...

, Shanshrah, and al-Bara. Prior to the Syrian civil war, Kafr Nabl was Syria's largest producer of figs and a major producer of olives. About 3,700

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre i ...

s, or 778,000 trees were used for fig cultivation. Roughly 60% of the population were employed in the production and natural processing of the fruit. Farmers in Kafr Nabl usually dedicated around 80% of their cultivation time to the production of figs and 20% for olives. Since the civil war, the town has gained fame for producing satirical videos about the war. It belonged to an area controlled by the

Army of Conquest The Army of Conquest ( ar, جيش الفتح) or Jaish al-Fatah, abbreviated JaF, was a joint command center of Sunni Islamist Syrian rebel factions participating in the Syrian Civil War. The alliance was formed in March 2015 under the sup ...

. Planes of the

Russian Air Force "Air March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 12 August , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = , decorations = , batt ...

, based in

Latakia , coordinates = , elevation_footnotes = , elevation_m = 11 , elevation_ft = , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 41 , geocode ...

, had begun to attack the city in the autumn of 2015. On November 23, 2018, activist

Raed Fares Raed Fares ( ar, رائد فارس; born December 6, 1982 in Gaza, Palestine) is a Palestinian professional football (soccer) player currently playing for Jerusalem side Hilal Al-Quds of the West Bank Premier League. He plays primarily as a rig ...

and journalist Hamoud Junaid were killed in Kafr Nabl, by an unknown gunman. Most of the town's remaining inhabitants fled in early 2019, due to the violence that erupted during the 2019 Northwestern Syria offensive. Shortly thereafter, the rebel groups in control of the town received a "stark warning" from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

, which accused them of using it to stage alleged false-flag chemical attacks against the Syrian government, as well as a launching ground for missiles targeting government-controlled areas in violation of the Idlib demilitarization agreement. On 21 July 2019, the local council of the rebel-held town declared that "everything n the townhad been destroyed and burnt" as a result of clashes and government airstrikes targeting rebel positions within it. On February 25, 2020, the Syrian Army reimposed control on Kafr Nabl for the first time since 2012 during the 2019–20 Northwestern Syria offensive and repulsed rebel attempts to re-take it during their counterattack.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

*Al-Ubeidu, Ahmed
Old Mosques in Kafr Nabl From Several Civilizations
''E-Idleb''. E-Syria. 2011-01-26. {{Idlib Governorate, maara Populated places in Maarat al-Numan District Towns in Syria Archaeological sites in Idlib Governorate Populated places in Jabal Zawiya