Intense clashes between the Syrian Army and Idlib militants resulted in large casualties among both sides, according to statements by the Syrian and Russian defense ministries.
On January 23, the Syrian military reported that its forces had repelled a large-scale attack on its positions in southeastern Idlib. The report said that the attack, led by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, targeted the towns of al-Tah, Abu Hurif and Samka. Suicide bombers were reportedly employed.
On the same day, the Russian Center for Reconciliation said in an official statement that over 600 miltiants supported by battle tanks and armoured vehicles, attacked army positions:
- A group of up to 270 militants, supported by 38 armed pickups attacked Syrian Army positions near At-Tah, and Muaysirunah. A group of Wadi as-Saane in southeastern Idlib;
- Up to 250 militants, supported by 2 BMP vehicles and 30 armed pickups attacked Syrian Army positions near Abu Dafn, Bars and Huan as-Shaf in southeastern Idlib;
- Up to 50 militants, supported by 4 vehicles armed with weapons, attacked Syrian Army positions near Rashidin 4 and al-Jazirah near Aleppo city.
According to the Russian side, government forces eliminated up to 50 militants, and wounded up to 90 others. At the same time, nearly 40 Syrian troops were killed and up to 80 injured, the Center added.
On January 22, the Russian military reported that the Syrian Army had repelled an attack by militants near At Tah. According to the report, the attack involved at least 30 militants.
Earlier, the Russian side said that 46 Syrian service members have been killed and 77 were wounded in recent clashes with Idlib militants in the period from January 16 to January 19.
These reports look strange as no pro-government or pro-opposition sources reported any such casualties among pro-government forces or even clashes of the aforementioned scale. It seems that even the propaganda wing of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham does not know about such successes of militants.HTS and its allies launched dozens of attacks from the region in the last few days. However, no large offensive operations were reported. One of the explanations is that they did not happen.
By releasing such reports, Damascus and Moscow may setting up a public opinion for a large-scale ground operation in Greater Idlib, that has been repeatedly forecasted by pro-government sources. On the other hand, these reports could be a part of the media operation designed to draw the audience’s attention from some other developments.
Hey South Front, don’t write, go to war! Then you will see what it’s propaganda and/or reality.
God protect Syrian Arab Army and allies!
God wont help. Only Russian backing on the highest political level can help. Luckily, Putin slowly seems to back away from his year long appeasement of Erdogan, towards more direct support of Assad and SAAs Idlib operation. About time.
Good journalism!
Taking control of the narrative, good move SAA, it doesn’t really make sense to be always telling it the way that it is, the biggest weakness of all is predictability as it creates sentiments not conducive for the pursuance of war in which casualties are inevitable and acceptance of losses is a strength to be promoted not vilified.
Twas a time, when news services embedded their own or had independent journalist connections directly into or close to the combat areas; today States and non state actors, terrorist or rebels) have learned by watching US and NATO actors on how to control the News output. In recent past both Afghanistan, Iraq Lybia, and elsewhere military activity was about, Independent journalist were if not accepted fully were at least tolerated as they faced the very same closeness to death as the combatants and civilians, that is no longer.the case. Today only news first comes from official sources, and repeated by officially recognized journalist, otherwise both sides blow you away or deport you far away What is worse gone are the days when an independent could find news outlets or publishers that financially rewarded them for reporting truth through words-audio, writings or video. Today we can be news aggregators thousands or hundreds of miles away if brave, with good PC or satellite available telecommunications, sitting at desk gathering official new and late reports andnpresent them via web hoping to get pay-pal and advertising backers. There.are today tens of thousands writing false or false mixed with truth, remixed and hyped by knowing the bias of aufience, writing, 500, 750,.1000, 1250 and 1500 word and earning from US $ 250 up to 2000 for each article accepted, you sign up they tell you subject and you write what they want; for some it is a 6 figure a year income.. Seen many here with themskills to do so, just learn how to get a copyright, you can then have reasonable chance of bring paid for original copy. Who knows in a couple years time maybe write a real enough historical fiction story about ones years as an independent journalist that reported from all of worlds conflict zones. You should always be skeptical of large aggregator reporting; truth can only come from trusted contacts directly involved at lowest levels of events. Hard to find, only in Europe, China. per pot Arabic fanatical religious States but hardest place to findntruth and truthful sources of all, is USA. Ask the question and then question both the answer and character of individual (s) it comes from. And the only burning bushes in world today are forest fires or fires caused by warfare, ‘m.the warfare Bush speaks by not speaking its picture tells the story, no matter the GOD (s) of one behind camera. Darn and today we can easily photo shop GOD’s handiwork in our own image.