Nubl

This article is about the town in the Aleppo Governorate. For the town in the Idlib Governorate, see Kafr Nabl.
Nubl
نبل
Town
Nubl
Coordinates: 36°22′32″N 36°59′39″E / 36.37556°N 36.99417°E
Country Syria
Governorate Aleppo
District A'zaz
Subdistrict Nubl
Population (2004 census)[1]
 • Total 21,039
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 • Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)

Nubl (Arabic: نبل‎, also spelled Nubbul or Nubbol) is a small city in northern Syria, administratively part of the Aleppo Governorate, located northwest of Aleppo. Nearby localities include al-Zahraa immediately to the south, Anadan to the southeast, Tel Rifaat to the northeast, Aqiba to the north, Barad to the west, and Mayer immediately to the east. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Nubl had a population of 21,039 in the 2004 census.[1] Its inhabitants are predominantly Shia Muslims and together with nearby al-Zahraa, Nubl forms a small Shia-inhabited pocket in a mostly Sunni Muslim area in the Aleppo Governorate.[2]

Syrian civil war

Nubl and al-Zahraa have been placed under siege by the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) starting in July 2012. Movement out of Nubl has been severely curtailed and it currently relies on goods being airlifted by the Syrian Army. Although relations between the inhabitants of Nubl and the surrounding villages were normally friendly, during the ongoing Syrian civil war, anti-government supporters from nearby Sunni villages have claimed that Nubl and al-Zahraa hosted pro-government militias that have launched attacks against opposition supporters. There have been numerous tit-for-tat kidnappings between Nubl and pro-opposition villages in the vicinity.[2][3] After months of rebel siege and continuous reciprocal kidnappings, popular committees in the two towns agreed to begin negotiations with Sunni rebels on 27 March 2013. The agreement to negotiate was organised by Kurdish parties from the neighbouring Kurd Dagh region, which is controlled by Kurdish separatists of the PYD. The talks were to be brokered by Kurds, and several kidnapped individuals had been freed on both sides.[4]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 General Census of Population and Housing 2004. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Aleppo Governorate. Archived at . (Arabic)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hendawi, Hamza. In Syria, Sunni rebels besiege Shiite villages. Yahoo News. Originally published by Associated Press. 2012-10-18,
  3. ↑ Landis, Joshua. Clinton Helps Shape New Syrian Gov in Exile Syria Comment. 2012-11-01.
  4. ↑ AFP (27 March 2013). "Syria Kurds help Shiite, Sunni fighters negotiate". NOW. Retrieved 27 March 2013.