The Syrian Army forces continue to repel attacks by foreign-backed terrorist groups in the country’s northwestern areas, especially second largest city of Aleppo.
Local media said on Saturday that the Syrian military, backed by Russian air power, launched retaliatory strikes against terrorist positions on the outskirts of Aleppo and the eastern countryside of Idlib.
Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network cited Syrian sources as saying that there was a “cautious calm” in the axes of Aleppo after Takfiri terrorists entered the western neighborhoods of the city, with the Syrian warplanes continuing to target them.
“Armed terrorist groups have spread across about 60% of the area of Aleppo,” the television network said. “They are imposing a curfew on residents in their areas of deployment until further notice. The Syrian army has redeployed towards Aleppo airport to protect the city from destruction.”
Al-Mayadeen said residents of Nubl and Zahraa in the northern countryside of Aleppo had evacuated the towns before the entry of the foreign-backed terrorists.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allied terrorist factions advanced into sections of Aleppo on Friday, seizing areas including al-Hamdaniyah, al-Furqan, and al-Zahraa after two days of heavy clashes, according to local sources. However, Syrian forces quickly launched counter-operations to repel them.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitor, said Russian warplanes had launched raids on areas of Aleppo city for the first time since 2016 to stop terrorist advances.
State media reported that four civilians were killed when HTS shelled a student residence in Aleppo.
Last month, Russian and 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.
The onslaught on Aleppo marking the resurgence of Takfiri terrorism came just after Israel submitted to a ceasefire in its war on Lebanon where Hezbollah put up fierce up resistance to Israeli troops trying to occupy pockets of the country’s south.
Israeli aircraft bombed sites along Syria’s border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said Saturday, testing a fragile, days-old ceasefire that halted months of fighting.
