Terrorists Fails to Prevail over Army Positions in Northern Syria

TEHRAN (defapress)- The Syrian Army's artillery and missile units, deployed in Northern Hama and Southern Idlib, shelled terrorist groups' movements from the demilitarized zone on Saturday and preempted their heavy offensives.

News ID: 74494

Date: 22 December 2018 - 14:50

The artillery and missile units, deployed in al-Ghaab Plain in Northern Hama, shelled the positions and movements of Turkistani Islamic Party that tired to break through the government forces' positions from the small town of al-Ziyarah in demilitarized zone.

Turkistani terrorists suffered heavy casualties and their military hardware sustained major damage in the heavy artillery attack that caused the remaining pockets of the terrorists to retreat.

Other artillery units pounded the positions of a group of Turkistani Islamic Party in the small town of al-Najiyeh in Jisr al-Shughour in Western Idlib, killing and wounding a number of terrorists and destroying their military equipment.

Other army units, deployed in Southeastern Idlib, targeted terrorists' movements in the villages and small towns of al-Khowein, Skeik, Zarzour, al-Farajah, Sahal and Jarjanaz, imposing major losses on the terrorists.

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 Hay'at (the Levant Liberation Board or the Al-Nusra Front) 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.

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