ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Syrian government forces on Wednesday said they had surrounded a camp in the northwestern Idlib province housing French jihadists, as Damascus cracks down on foreign fighters. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported on Wednesday that Syrian government forces launched an operation against French jihadists in the Harem region, near the Turkish border. 

The son of a prominent French jihadist told AFP that clashes erupted after government forces began closing in on the camp, claiming that the French government had demanded “two French nationals from the group” to be handed over. 

Ghassan Bakir, a military commander in Idlib province, said in a statement on Wednesday that state forces had surrounded the camp. 

The group of jihadists is reportedly the Firqat al-Ghuraba, or Strangers Division, and is led by Omar Omsen, also known as Omar Diaby, a French jihadist of Senegalese origin wanted by Paris and designated an “international terrorist” by the United States. 

The Observatory reported that “a number of French foreigners and security personnel have been killed and wounded during an attempt to storm the camp, using light and medium weapons. Two French jihadists have also been arrested.” 

In a statement published on their Telegram channel, Firqat al-Ghuraba slammed the operation as a “slanderous campaign against our group that is led by the French government.” 

“We will not accept any infiltration by force, wherever it comes from,” the group said. 

The operation comes amid increasing pressure by the international community on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to remove foreign jihadists from the country as a prerequisite to the removal of sanctions. 

According to the Observatory, foreign militants across Idlib are being targeted in a “widespread campaign.”