Syrian forces entered the town of Khan-Sheikhun in Syria’s Idlib Province on Sunday, amid heavy fighting with Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists and their allies, targeting their positions and inflicting heavy losses on foreign paid mercenaries.
According to the report, the Syrian army targeted al-Nusra fortifications in the direction of Kafridon and al-Sabbaghiya, in the suburbs of Khan-Sheikhun, killing many of the terrorists, while other gunmen fled the area.
Earlier last week, the Syrian military liberated two villages in the south of Idlib Province after clashing with terrorists.
A brigadier general of the Syrian Armed Forces said that liberation followed violent clashes between the military and the terrorists from the Jabhat Nusra group, during which several fighters were killed and military equipment was seized.
The northwestern Syrian province is the last militant stronghold in the country. It was overrun by the Nusra Front terror group in 2015 and subsequently accepted militants evacuated from other regions under a ceasefire deal with the government.
According to the United Nations, Idlib has approximately 10,000 members of the Nusra Front and al-Qaeda, who regularly use local residents as human shields.
Idlib province is the last major part of Syria largely controlled by various armed groups, some of them hardcore jihadists.
On request from Russia, the Syrian government agreed not to use force to retake the region to avoid casualties among civilians, who have blood ties with Turkey.
The Turkish Defense Ministry has condemned Syria for attacking its convoy in the Syrian province of Idlib. Damascus said the vehicles were transporting weapons and ammo to “terrorist forces.”
Ankara said three people were killed and 12 others injured on Monday after the Syrian airstrike, which targeted a Turkish military convoy travelling between two observation points in northern Syria.
The statement said all victims were civilians, without explaining how they were involved in a military operation?
Ankara said the attack violated the agreement between Russia, Turkey and Iran, which paved the way to a relative de-escalation in the protracted war in Syria.
Ankara is supposed to prevent hostilities from reigniting, with a series of observation posts spread along the provincial border to monitor the situation.
The plan however never fully worked, with regular flare-ups happening between various armed groups and the Syrian Arab Army.
The nature of the attacked convoy is perceived differently by the Syrian side, however.
The Syrian news agency SANA said it was carrying weapons and ammunition to “terrorist forces” in the town of Khan Sheikhoun. It’s located in the southern part of Idlib province on a highway connecting the cities of Aleppo and Hama.
Lately there has been heavy fighting near Khan Sheikhoun between Damascus forces and the group controlling the city, predominantly the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTC), formerly known as Nusra Front.
Anadolu Ageny / ABC Flash Point News 2019.
