News / Syria

Syrian forces discover network of long tunnels once used by militants in Idlib

Monday, 03 February 2020 3:15 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 03 February 2020 3:21 PM ]

The photo, provided by Syria’s official news agency SANA, shows a tunnel discovered by Syrian forces in Idlib on February 3, 2010.

Syrian government forces have discovered a network of long tunnels as well as underground makeshift facilities once used by militants in the northwestern province of Idlib.

Army soldiers and pro-government fighters from popular defense groups found the secret tunnels and the fortified headquarters for the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, during wide-scale clean-up operations in the newly liberated city of Ma'arat al-Nu'man in Idlib, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported on Monday.

The facilities, equipped with tunnels and ventilation systems, were built under the museum of the city on an area of approximately 1,000 square meter, it added.

The heavily fortified concrete structures were used as weapons storage.

The photo shows an underground structure discovered by Syrian forces in Idlib on February 3, 2010.

“The terrorists also used the fortified headquarters to reside there and allocated parts of it as prisons and centers to torture the abducted civilians who oppose their presence in the area,” SANA quoted a military source as saying.

Separately, in the liberated town of Khan al-Subol, Syrian troops seized a hospital and a field medical center used for treating the injured terrorists. They also discovered a number of trenches and caves used by terrorists to fortify and protect themselves from the Syrian army strikes.

Syrian troops liberate more towns, villages in Idlib, Aleppo

The Syrian army retakes more villages in the northwestern Idlib province as part of an operation to liberate the last major terrorist-held territory in the Arab country.

In recent days, Syrian troops, backed by Russia's air cover, made rapid advances in Idlib liberating the city of Ma'arat al-Nu'man, which is situated about 100 kilometers southwest of the militant-controlled city of al-Bab.

Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates wrote to the United Nations on January 25, stressing that the operation in Idlib and Aleppo against Takfiri elements "will not stop until the elimination of those terrorists, who threaten safety and security of Syrian civilians."

Idlib and the area north of Aleppo province form part of the only large territory in the hands of terrorists after the Syrian military managed to vanquish the foreign-backed terrorists across the country and bring back almost all of the Syrian soil under government control.