Foreign-backed terrorists launch major attack against Syrian Army in Aleppo

A coalition of foreign-backed terrorist groups and anti-Damascus militants have launched a major attack on the Syrian military positions in the northwestern province of Aleppo, with the Arab country’s army forces engaging in a deadly confrontation to repel the large-scale aggression.

Local media reports said members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist outfit and their allied armed factions overran at least 10 areas under the control of the Syrian military in the west of Aleppo city and the eastern countryside of Idlib on Wednesday.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitor, said almost 100 soldiers as well as militants from both sides were killed as a result of the heavy clashes.

Activists working with SOHR reported that 44 members of HTS were killed along with 16 members of allied armed militant groups.

“Moreover, 37 members of the Syrian … forces including at least four officers of different ranks were killed and five members were captured, while weapon depots, armored vehicles, machineries and heavy weapons were taken over,” the observatory said in a statement.

The monitoring group also said that civilians, including children, had been killed and injured in the clashes, which saw Syrian army forces fire “hundreds of shells and missiles on civil and military positions” during the fighting.

Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television network cited a Syrian source in Idlib as saying that HTS had directed all hospitals in the city and the northern countryside to stop surgeries and prepare to treat only the militants injured in the battles.

The source said the terrorist outfit used rocket launchers and mortars to pave the way for advancing towards the Syrian army points in Qabtan al-Jabal, Bala and Sheikh Aqil in the west of Aleppo.

“Immediately after the start of the attack, the Syrian army, with the support of reconnaissance aircraft and the joint Syrian and Russian air forces, began carrying out extensive strikes around the front of the clashes, reaching the supply lines of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham starting from the entrance to Idlib city and reaching the Taftanaz military airport camp east of Idlib,” the Syrian source added.

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The Syrian army forces were also reported to have pounded areas near militant-held Idlib city and the cities of Ariha and Sarmada along with other areas in southern Idlib Province.

Last month, the joint Russian-Syrian warplanes carried out raids on the HTS positions in the Idlib and Latakia countrysides in Syria, targeting the terrorists’ training sites and warehouses, in addition to an underground tunnel in the vicinity of the town of Benin in Jabal al-Zawiya.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, is considered a terrorist organization by Syria, Russia, and several other countries. 

Syria has been gripped by foreign-sponsored militancy since March 2011, with Damascus saying the Western states and their regional allies are aiding terrorist groups to wreak havoc in the Arab country.

Terror outfits are seeking to hinder the Syrian government’s efforts aimed at consolidating security and stability in the country, which is also under the Israeli regime's regular aggression.

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