Arab Paper: Syrian Army to Kick Off Idlib Operations after Turkey’s Failure under Sochi Agreement

“The US savage reaction and intensified attacks against Deir Ezzur shows the importance of freedom fights in Syria,” the Arabic-language al-Thawra newspaper wrote on Saturday.

“This US behavior is the result of the its fear of the start of the Syrian army’s Idlib operations and its impacts on the terrorists’ morale,” it added.

The paper also said that the Syrian army’s battle in Idlib will start in response to the repeated violation of the Sochi agreement by Turkey which had vowed to persuade the terrorist groups to leave the weapons-free zone, but done nothing in this regard so far.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Thursday that terrorists continued reinvigorating their positions in the so-called arms-free zone in Northern Syria one month after the Sochi agreement between Russia and Turkey called for the establishment of a weapons-free region to deescalate the situation in Idlib.

It added that the terrorist groups have not yet shown any sign of withdrawal from the demilitarized zone from Northeastern Lattakia, Hama and Idlib to Northwestern Aleppo.

It added that the militants have in the past few days sent new weapons and military equipment to the regions under their control in the weapons-free zone.

According to the report, Tahrir al-Sham Hay’at (the Levant Liberation Board or the Al-Nusra Front) has recently reinvigorated its strongholds in Eastern Saraqib in Eastern Idlib and regions near the army-held areas.

In addition to strengthening their positions in the demilitarized zone, the terrorists launch continued offensives against the army in Northern Syria.

Analysts believe that continued attacks by Tahrir al-Sham against the army positions in Northern Syria encourage the army to stage its long-waited assault on terrorists in Idlib.