Syria in Last 24 Hours: Syrian Army Sends More Military Convoys to Sweida Desert to Counter ISIL

Battlefield sources said that the Syrian army dispatched hundreds of soldiers, tens of military and armored vehicles and heavy equipment from Hazar town in Quneitra province to the surrounding areas of Toloul al-Safa region in the Eastern desert of Sweida.

The sources noted that a large number of Syrian army's units and military equipment have been dispatched to Toloul al-Safa in the past week.

The Syrian Army's Special Forces who have participated in different battles of Damascus, Quneitra and Dara'a are also taking part in the anti-ISIL military operation in Sweida.

Aleppo

A large number of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militants started running away from their positions in Northeastern Syria as the Turkish army is preparing for an imminent cross-border ground invasion of territories on the Eastern bank of the Euphrates, Arab media reports said Thursday.

"A sum of 130 SDF militants defected en mass the Kurdish-dominated militia group in al-Houl town in Southeastern Hasaka," the Arabic-language al-Manar news network reported.

Media activists also said that the SDF military patrols are looking for the defected members in Eastern Hasaka.

Meantime, the Kurdish-language Hawar news reported the Turkish army pounded the two villages of Jagherli and Salib Koran in Kobani region North-East of Aleppo province.

Also, the village of Susak to the West of Tal Abyadh city came under heavy machine-gun attack by the Turkish army.

The SDF military positions in Hasaka, Raqqa and Aleppo provinces have come under attack by the Turkish army over the past week as reports a growing number of reports are surfacing the media on Turkey's preparations for starting battle with the Kurds in Eastern Euphrates.

In the meantime, Fierce clashes intensified among terrorists of Ahrar al-Sharqiyeh and other militants in Afrin region in Western Aleppo over plundering people's properties amid rising insecurity in the region.

Hawar news reported that infighting among terrorists of Ahrar al-Sharqiyeh and other elements of Jeish al-Islam intensified in al-Sanaeh district and Kaveh square in central Afrin in Western Aleppo when they disagreed over their share of people's plundered properties.

Tens of terrorists have been killed and wounded from both sides, the news outlet said.

Hawar news also reported heavy clashes among Ankara-backed militants on the road to Amara village in Mubata region and Joqeh village in the Center of Afrin as well as clashes on Qatal Jundo road.

Meantime, all shops and businesses were closes and people refrained from leaving their houses.

The Turkish army and their allied militants have occupied Afrin for several months now and infighting among them over the share of people's seized properties has risen.

Deir Ezzur

The SDF forwarded long convoys of militants and equipment to the village of Tayb al-Fal East of Deir Ezzur province.

The SDF also sent another military convoy from its base in Hasaka province to the village of al-Takihi as well as towns of al-Shahil and Ziban in the Southeastern parts of Deir Ezzur province.

Meantime, field sources said that the SDF deployed its military equipment in five schools that they had formerly declared as military zones, and underlined that the deployment of the equipment has taken place after unrests in the region and intensified attacks by unknown assailants on SDF military positions.

The sources noted that an SDF militant has been killed by an unknown assailant in the village of al-Jameh in Southeastern Deir Ezzur, adding that a new wave of arrests has started in the town of Zabian.

Meantime, residents of Hamar al-Ala village in Northwestern Deir Ezzur staged protest against corruption of the local council of the SDF in the village.

Idlib

Two notorious commanders of Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at (the Levant Liberation Board or the Al-Nusra Front) were killed in a gun fire attack in Western and Southern Idlib on Thursday.

Field sources said a Tahrir al-Sham commander, Abu Abdollah Mohjer Marakeshi, was killed by unknown assailants in Jisr al-Shughour in Western Idlib.

Another Ahrar al-Sham commander, namely Abulfazl, was gunned down by unknown assailants North of the Talmans town in Maa'rat al-Numan in Southern Idlib.

The news came as a number of Tahrir al-Sham terrorists were shot dead by gunmen in al-Janoudiyeh village to the West of Idlib.

Infighting and assassination operations have increased further in Northern Syria after the endorsement of the Sochi Agreement by Russia and Turkey that ruled for the establishment of a demilitarized zone in Idlib.

Raqqa

The bodies of over 8,000 Syrians killed in the bombing raids carried out by the US and the coalition led by it have been found in mass graves in Syria’s Raqqa after the rubble was partially cleared away, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

"Last week, the Syrian government, in its letters addressed to the UN secretary general and the UN Security Council president, provided the tragic statistics on the victims of the coalition’s bombing raids in the city of Raqqa during its ‘liberation’ from ISIL (known as ISIS or Daesh)," she noted, TASS reported.

"The bodies of over 4,000 people were found while clearing away the rubble in two of the city’s residential neighborhoods left over from the airstrikes and also around the stadium and the zoo. Those were mainly women, the elderly and children. In addition, a mass grave where more than 2,500 people were buried was uncovered at a farm near a pediatric clinic and the National Hospital, while another burial site was opened near Al-Panorama where 1,500 bombing raids’ victims were buried," Zakharova added.

"The letters stressed that to date just two percent of the rubble had been cleared away in Raqqa, which had been literally razed to the ground," Zakharova emphasized.

According to the diplomat, the statistics turned out to be in stark contrast with "the hysterical reaction expressed by the US and other Western countries with respect to protecting Syrians’ rights", and "the information provided in recent reports by various Western NGOs on the situation in Raqqa".

Raqqa province and its capital of the same name served as the main outpost for the ISIL terror group in Syria. The city of Raqqa was recaptured from the terrorists last October by predominately-Kurdish units, which form part of the SDF backed by the US-led coalition.

Moscow and Damascus have drawn attention to the situation in Raqqa on numerous occasions. On November 29, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said that the US and its allies were trying "to hide the dire consequences of their military operation" to liberate the Syrian city. For its part, Damascus sent a letter to the UN, which laid the blame for the bloody carnage on the US-led coalition, whose air raids claimed thousands of lives, while the city itself was razed to the ground

Hama

The terrorist groups continued to deploy militants in the demilitarized zone in violation of the Sochi Agreement reached by Moscow and Ankara as the Syria army foiled a new wave of attacks by Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at terrorists and their allies in Northern Hama and Southeastern Idlib.

Meantime, the Arabic-language Al-Watan newspaper reported that despite a deadline for establishing a demilitarized zone, the members of Islamic Turkistani Party affiliated to Tahrir al-Sham continue their deployment in the battlefronts to go to war with the Syrian Army in al-Ghaab Plain and al-Sarmaniyeh heights to Northern Jisr al-Shughour.

Meantime, the Syrian army clashed with Islamic Turkistani terrorists who were trying to penetrate into the army's positions in the surrounding areas of al-Masaseneh town in Northern Hama and foiled their attempt.

The Syrian army troops inflicted heavy losses on the terrorists and forced others to flee towards areas in the demilitarized zone in Southeastern Idlib.

Other Syrian army units, meantime, launched missile attacks on Tahrir al-Sham positions in al-Jisat village and the outskirts of al-Latamina, killing and wounding many of them.

In Eastern Idlib, the Syrian army's artillery units also pounded the movements of Tahrir al-Sham in Tavil al-Halib village and two towns of Bariseh and Tal al-Sultan as well as Katibeh Mahjoreh in Eastern Idlib, leaving a large number dead and wounded.

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