Syrian Army Preempts Terrorists’ Attacks in Demilitarized Zone in Hama, Idlib Provinces

The army’s artillery units pounded terrorists’ movements in the demilitarized zone near the towns of al-Latamina, al-Zakat and al-Jisat in Northern Hama, and repelled their impending attack on government forces’ positions in the village of al-Zalaqiyat.

The terrorists suffered heavy casualties and their military hardware sustained major damage in the army’s artillery fire.

In the meantime, other artillery units of the army opened heavy fire at a group of terrorists that tried to approach government forces’ positions in the village of al-Hamaiyat North of the small town of Mahradah via their regions in the small towns of al-Jisat and Tal al-Sakhar, killing and wounding a number of them.

Other artillery units targeted the movements of Turkistani Islamic Party and Tahrir al-Sham Hay’at (the Levant Liberation Board or the Al-Nusra Front) in al-Khowein and al-Tamanna in Southeastern Idlib.

In the meantime, the artillery units, in a heavy fire, destroyed Tahrir al-Sham’s new hardware in Skeik in Southeastern Idlib that inflicted major casualties on the group too.

The terrorists’ refusal to implement the Sochi Agreement to establish a demilitarized zone is pushing the army to initiate its long-waited assault on militants in Idlib that had been put on hold due to the Sochi Agreement.

Colonel Mar’ei Hamdan, a Syrian military expert, was quoted by the Arabic-language website of Sputnik news agency as saying last month that Tahrir al-Sham is in control of nearly 70% of towns and villages in Idlib province and makes provocative moves against the Syrian army, adding that the army’s commitment to decrease tensions is not lasting forever.

He added that the Syrian army has so far repelled all attacks by terrorists against its positions and inflicted heavy damages on them, noting that the army is now necessitated to come out of the defensive mood to retake control of Idlib.

Hamdan said that Tahrir al-Sham will resort to a full-scale military operation against the Syrian and Russian armies soon, after rejecting the Sochi agreement last October, which leaves no room for ceasefire or disarmament anymore, and underlined that the Syrian army’s battle against Tahrir al-Sham is inevitable.

Meantime, the Turkey-backed Ahrar al-Sham and National Liberation Front (NLF) terrorist groups has also dismissed the Russian-Turkish Sochi agreement and is preparing for military operations against the army in Northern Syria, calling for a coalition with Tahrir al-Sham.

Tahrir al-Sham and other allied terrorist groups have not left the demilitarized zone two months after the Sochi agreement and have instead reinvigorated their strongholds and targeted the army positions every day.

Relevant reports said that the Turkey-backed NLF had put its gunmen on alert to launch a heavy offensive against the Syrian army in the demilitarized zone in Idlib province.