Syria Army Repels Militant Attack in Hama

Clashes broke out on the edge of the northwestern Idlib province as the militants attempted to move towards Syrian military posts in Hama northern countryside, SANA reported.

The terrorists moved from the direction of al-Sermaniye and Duwair al-Akrad in al-Ghab plain area in Hama countryside on Friday.

During the counterattack, dozens of the militants were killed and many others fled the battlefield, the report added.

The areas where the clashes broke out are located in a planned buffer zone, which surrounds Idlib and also parts of the adjacent provinces of Aleppo and Hama.

Under a deal reached following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in September, all militants should have withdrawn from the demilitarization zone by October 15.

However, al-Qaeda-linked Takfiri terrorists said they refuse to either leave the buffer zone or hand over their weapons.

Moscow believed that the 15-20 kilometer buffer zone would help stop attacks from Idlib-based militants on Syrian army positions and Russia's military bases in the flashpoint region.

Idlib and some surrounding areas are the last major bastions of Takfiri terrorists and anti-government militants in Syria, where the Syrian government has in recent months retaken much of the territory it had lost since the conflict erupted in the country in 2011.

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