Syria

Syria in Last 24 Hours: Army Preparing for Operations to Purge Al-Nusra Terrorists from Idlib

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The Syrian army is preparing for massive operations to purge the Idlib province of Al-Nusra Takfiri terrorist group.
The Al-Nusra Front lost nearly two dozen senior commanders in Idlib in the Syrian army’s latest military operations.

On Friday, commander of the al-Nusra Front Abu Hammam al-Shami and 18 others senior commanders were killed as an explosion targeted their meeting at one of the group’s sites in Syria’s Idlib.

Abu Mosaab al-Falastini, Abu Omar al-Kurdi, Abu Baraa al-Ansari and Mohammad Abdol Salam al-Lobnani were some of the killed commanders in the Syrian air force’s attack on the group’s meeting.

Also Abu Mohammad al-Joulani was injured in the airstrike.

Abu Hammam al-Shami was the most important commander of Al-Nusra Front since the establishment of the terrorist group in 2012. He was trained in Afghanistan as an Al-Qaeda member and was one of the terrorists who conducted the terrorist attacks against the US on September 11, 2001.

Also in the past 24 hours, the Syrian army edged closer to the armed groups’ hideouts in the countryside of Idlib, claiming the lives of scores of Takfiri militants.

The army troops raided the strongholds of the rebels in the areas of al-Badria, al-Tibat, Majdoulia, Helouz, Saraqib, al-Suda, wathfah, Mraeian and Abu al- duhur in Idlib countryside, killing and injuring large groups of them.

Also, the insurgents sustained a heavy toll in the areas of Tal Ashhib and Tal Asfar in the Northeastern countryside of Sweida, as the army made more headway in the province.

The Syrian army pressed ahead with operations against the foreign-supplied armed groups in the countryside of Quneitra and Aleppo, inflicting heavy casualties on Takfiri militants.

The army troops stormed the hideouts of the rebels in the areas of Hamidieh, Um Batneh, Mas’hara, Mumtanna, Kom al-Basha and Nabe’a al-Sakhr in Quneitra, killing and injuring a large number of them.

Also, the rebels suffered major losses in the areas of Karm al-Tarrad, Handarat, al-Mallah, Hreitan, al-Shqeif, and Madafeh, as the army made gains in its fight against the insurgents.

Meantime, the Al-Anfal armed brigade broke away from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) militants and joined the ranks of the Syrian National Defense forces in Southern Damascus.

Informed sources said that the gunmen, whose number were put to 65, split with their full military equipment, which included medium and light weapons, and surrendered to the Syrian authorities after breaking away from the FSA.

Also, unidentified gunmen killed at least 12 terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in the Eastern Syrian town of al-Mayadin in an overnight attack in an area near the Iraqi border controlled by ISIL, a monitoring group said.

Gunmen on at least two motor bikes first opened fire on an ISIL patrol before attacking ISIL Takfiri militants guarding a nearby courthouse, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A second group of gunmen meanwhile attacked an ISIL checkpoint in the same town, killing and injuring an unknown number of the ISIL terrorists, the Observatory reported.

Al-Mayadin is in the province of Deir Ezzur which is located about 60 km (40 miles) from the border with Iraq.

Three girls who ran away from their London homes are now believed to be in the city of Raqqa, a city in Northern Syria that serves as ISIL’s headquarters.

Authorities long suspected they were headed to Syria to join ISIL. Now it seems they arrived.

Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, both 15, and 16-year-old and Kadiza Sultana boarded a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul on February 17.

British and Turkish intelligence services searched for the girls and looked into their phone communications and social media accounts suspecting they were in contact with other women who had made the trip earlier.

The British broadcaster SkyTV News announced that sources say the girls are staying in a house in Raqqa.

“They’re now apparently in a house that is owned or controlled — or at least hosted by — a British girl who had been in contact with them through the internet, and had brought them through Turkey and into Syria,” a SkyTV News host declared.

“We are told by… good sources within the city of al Raqqa that they are there, that they are safe,” he added.

The city is ISIL’s stronghold and is fully suggesting the girls are now in an ISIL home.

Now another four pupils at London’s Bethnal Green Academy are being monitored by local police amid fears that they may try to join ISIL, local reports have revealed.

Bethnal Green Academy is the same school attended by the three girls now believed to be in Raqqa, suggesting that students there are in communication with Takfiris.

They believe that they — along with the three girls who already made the trip — are being recruited by a girl who fled to Syria from the same school last year and with whom they have been in contact.

In 2014, 22 British women traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group, according to local law enforcement. Only four were over the age of 20.

ISIL has been recruiting from more than 80 countries, including about 500 Britons. Many enter Syria and Iraq through Turkey. While world leaders have demanded that Turkey make more of an effort to detain them.

British Interior Minister Theresa May has presented a draft law that would give the government power to prohibit British residents to travel to Syria and join ISIL. The legislation would increase cooperation between security forces and the airlines in spotting potential recruits, particularly minors.

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