BEIRUT • They dug trenches around towns, reinforced caves for cover and put up sand bags around their positions. They issued calls to arms, urging young men to join in the defense of Idlib, the Syrian province where opposition fighters expect to make their last stand against Russian- and Iranian-backed government troops they have fought for years.

This time, it’s “surrender or die.”

As the decisive stand for their last stronghold looms, this motley crew of tens of thousands of opposition fighters, including some of the world’s most radical groups, is looking for ways to salvage whatever is possible of an armed rebellion that at one point in the seven-year conflict controlled more than half of the country.

In its last chapter, just as it has throughout the long, bloody war, the Syrian rebellion’s fate lies in foreign hands. This time, the splintered and diverse rebels have only Turkey.

“The whole world gave up on us, but Turkey will not,” said Capt. Najib al-Mustafa, spokesman for the Turkish-backed umbrella group known as the National Front for Liberation.

Idlib, with its 3 million residents and more than 60,000 fighters, is Turkey’s cross to bear.

Ankara has appealed to Russia and Iran, its uneasy negotiating partners, for a diplomatic resolution . At the same time, it has sent reinforcements of its troops ringing Idlib, a move designed to ward off a ground assault, at least for now. A wide offensive is only likely after a green light from Russia. But delicate diplomatic moves are at work.

Fighters with the Free Syrian army eat in a cave where they live, in the outskirts of the northern town of Jisr al-Shughur, Syria, west of the city of Idlib.

the associated press