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Radical militants violated the Russian-Turkish deconfliction agreement once again on November 4. They shelled civilian buildings in the towns of Jurin and Ma’an in the northwestern Hama countryside, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
“Terrorist groups of the so called Jabhat al-Nusra [now Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham] and the Turkistan Islamic Party [TIP] violated the deconfliction agreement on [the governorate of] Idlib and fired four mortars at the towns of Jurin and Ma’an,” the SANA’s reporter in Hama said.
The mortar attack resulted in material loses only. However, a day earlier a similar attack by the al-Qaeda-affiliated militants on the northwester Hama countryside killed four soldiers of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), according to the Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria.
Two days ago, a Syrian source warned that these repeated violations may eventually provoke a large-scale military operation by the SAA and its allies. However, Turkey is yet to take any serious step to implement the deconfliction agreement.
Eventually, Russia will get fed up with Turkey and its inaction to de-escelate the Idlib frontlines, and will assist Syria in retaking Idlib once and for all.