Syria in Last 24 Hours: Army Repels Terrorists’ Attack on Gov’t Positions in Hama
The terrorist attacks to capture the government forces’ positions in the Northern part of Hama province were fended off by the strong defense of the Syrian military men.
Meantime, the Syrian army and popular forces continued their military advances in other parts of Syria, including Idlib and Aleppo, over the past 24 hours.
Tens of terrorists were killed and dozens more were injured during the Syrian army’s operations in other provinces across Syria.
Hama
The Syrian Army troops repelled terrorists’ heavy offensive to break through the government forces’ positions in Northern Hama on Saturday, inflicting heavy casualties on the militants.
The army men engaged in heavy fighting with terrorists in Abu Obeideh and al-Shalyout regions near the town of Mahradeh in Northern Hama, fending off their attack.
A number of terrorists were killed or wounded in the failed attack.
Meantime, hundreds of fresh soldiers have been forwarded by the Syrian Army to Eastern Hama to accelerate military advances against terrorists in the region, a military source said Saturday.
The army has sent 300 fresh soldiers from Dara’a province to Eastern Hama to intensify attacks on terrorists amid the ongoing tough battle between the government forces and Al-Nusra Front (Tahrir al-Sham Hay’at or the Levant Liberation Board) in the region.
The army troops kept marching on the positions of the Al-Nusra Front in Northeastern Hama on Wednesday.
The army men pushed Al-Nusra back from the small towns of Al-Baleel and Mariqab al-Jamlaneh that were the terrorist group’s most major strongholds in Northeastern Hama after al-Rahjan.
Also, the army soldiers managed to advance against the Al-Nusra near Tal Khazima and Um Turaykiyeh regions and fortified and stabilize their positions.
Aleppo-Idlib
Gaps have been significantly widened among the members of Nouralddeen al-Zinki and Al-Nusra Front after a recent set of clashes among the two rival terrorist groups in Aleppo and Idlib provinces in Northwestern Syria, militant-affiliated websites reported on Saturday.
The websites reported that al-Farouq Brigade, one of the terrorist groups affiliated to the Al-Nusra Front, said in a statement on Friday that it cut relations with the Al-Nusra.
The statement came after Al-Nusra called on its affiliated groups to prepare for an imminent attack on Nouralddeen al-Zinki.
In the meantime, almost 200 fighters of al-Zinki have declared neutrality and defected their faction after the terrorist group and Al-Nusra engaged in fierce clashes in Western Aleppo.
Lattakia
The Russian Defense Ministry rejected reports about Ahrar al-Sham terrorists’ suicide attack on Russian servicemen near the Humeimim Airbase in the coastal province of Lattakia.
“There were no attacks on Russian servicemen or transport convoys in the Syrian province of Lattakia and the Russia-run airbase in Humeimim operates in regular mode,” an airbase spokesman was quoted as saying by the defense ministry.
The AMN had earlier reported that a member of the al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group Ahrar al-Sham drove a vehicle filled with explosives into a Russian military convoy, which caused a blast.
The news outlet cited photos from the terrorists allegedly showing Russian armored carriers.
However, Syrian security forces refuted the claims, stressing that the photos presented were fabrications, torn from the context.
The AMN also reported, citing an exclusive military source, the blast could have happened due to a Russian jet accidentally dropping its reserve fuel tank.
Syrian Army Using Modern Weapons
The Syrian Army troops have been utilizing a cutting-edged grenade launcher manufactured in Russia in war on terrorists across the country, a media outlet reported on Saturday.
The Arabic-language website of Russia’s state news agency, Sputnik, reported that the Damascus army has used the AGS-17 Plamya, a Soviet-designed automatic grenade launcher, in the battlefields across the country.
It further said that the AGS-17 is capable of destroying enemy targets from 1,700 meters in distance, adding that the grenade launcher has recently been mounted on armored and normal vehicles of the Syrian army.
Sputnik went on to say that the AGS-17 was previously used by the army’s elite forces, but now, even the ordinary infantries are also equipped with the weapon.
The Arabic Sputnik reports last month that the army was using Russian Metis M 1 anti-tank guided missiles to target terrorists’ explosive-laden suicide vehicles in battles across the country.
The ISIL used bomb-laden vehicles to carry out suicide attacks, and it mounted different types of protective systems on its suicide vehicles.
The Metis M 1 – anti-tank guided missiles were used by the Syrian army as an efficient weapons system to destroy ISIL’s suicide vehicles.
The report said that Metis M1 was a light, but powerful, system that could track and destroy different targets, including bomb-laden vehicles.
The missile’s range covers distances between 80 up to 2,000 meters, it said, adding that the missile is powerful enough to penetrate different types of armors.
