Turkey Fails to Persuade Terrorists to Withdraw form Demilitarized Zone in Northern Syria

The SOHR reported that Turkey has failed to convince terrorist groups to withdraw from the demilitarized zone mentioned in the Sochi Agreements that covers parts of Lattakia, Idlib, Hama and Aleppo provinces a week after the agreement’s deadline of October 15.

In the meantime, Syria’s state-run al-Watan daily pointed to the failure of Turkey in expelling terrorists from the demilitarized zone, and said that the Syrian Army’s artillery units pounded the movements of Tahrir al-Sham Hay’at (the Levant Liberation Board or the Al-Nusra Front) terrorists that tried to prevail over the army’s positions in al-Latamina region in Northeastern Hama and in the village of al-Zarzour in Southeastern Idlib.

A number of Tahrir al-Sham terrorists were killed or wounded in the army’s artillery attack.

Analysts believe that Syrian Army is likely to conduct military operation in Northern and Northwestern parts of the country as terrorist groups have showed no intention to leave the demilitarized zone.

Field sources in Northeastern Hama reported on Thursday that a large number of Syrian army troops were on alert in their positions in Northern Hama and Southern Idlib.

They added that the development came after the terrorist groups avoided implementation of the Russia-Turkey agreement to create a demilitarized zone in Northern Syria.

The report said the Syrian army troops also attacked the moves of the terrorists in Hama and Idlib, foiling their attempts to infiltrate into the army-held areas.

Other reports said that while the deadline for the terrorists’ withdrawal from the arms-free zone in Syria ended, they did not withdraw from their strongholds and rather reinvigorated them.

With the rebels refusing to leave the buffer zone, the Syrian Army began mobilizing their troops in Northern Hama and Southern Idlib for a potential military operation against the terrorists.

While the 4th Division has been redeployed to Southern Syria to help with the ISIL offensive, the Tiger Forces and Liwa al-Quds have remained near the Idlib front in case the jihadist rebels refuse to leave the buffer zone.

As of now, no military operation is planned in Northwest Syria; however, this could change in the next week if Turkey does not convince the jihadist rebels to withdraw from the buffer zone.