On January 17, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the Tiger Forces, backed up by the Russian Aerospace Forces, captured the village of Batha northeast of Tell Maish in southwestern Aleppo, according to the Hezbollah media wing in Syria.
During its advance, the SAA killed “Hasan Abd al-Razaq Bakur”, a military commander of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) group “Jaysh al-Nukhba” and a military commander of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) called “Abu Nasir Qusiyah”.
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Earlier, the SAA launched an attack against HTS and its allies in the villages of Ziyarah, al-Hayniyah and Abdat al-Shaykh south of Batha.
Meanwhile, Syrian oppositions sources reported that Russian and Syrian warplanes conducted dozens of airstrikes against the positions of HTS and its allies in the towns of Khan Shaykhun, Maar Tahroma, Kafr Nabl, Saraqib and Maarrat al-Nu’man in southern Idlib.
SE. #Idlib: intense aerial activity of #RuAF & #SyAF jets & choppers. pic.twitter.com/bTP4xyzdBe
— Qalaat Al Mudiq (@QalaatAlMudiq) January 16, 2018
From its side, HTS and its allies didn’t conduct any operations against the SAA in southern Idlib. This indicate that they suffer from a lack of manpower on the frontline once again.
The SAA is currently working to reach the Tiger Forces around the Abu Duhur airbase from the northern and the eastern directions in order to besiege HTS and its allies inside the airbase and in the northeastern Hama countryside.
