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Hundreds of cadets and officers from the Al-Assad Military Academy have been rescued in a joint Syrian-Russian counter-terrorism operation carried out to break through a siege by militants in the northwestern city of Aleppo, the country’s Defense Ministry announced on December 4.
In a statement, the ministry said that the cadets fought off the militants before being aided by “joint Syrian-Russian military-political coordination.”
The militants -led by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)- had stormed the academy with various types of medium- and heavy-caliber weapons and advanced drones, according to the ministry.
The students were later encircled again by groups of militants armed with heavy vehicles, including tanks, artillery, machine guns, and drones, the statement said, noting that some of the cadets and officers were killed and others injured.
The siege was eventually lifted through a joint Syrian-Russian military cooperation, the ministry added. The academy students have safely arrived in the western city of Homs, where they were provided with the necessary care and medical treatment, the statement said.
Sources familiar with the situation told SouthFront that the cadets and officers, numbered around 800, were the last to withdraw from Aleppo city, which fell into the hands of HTS and its allies on November 30. The young troops fought fiercely, refusing orders to pull out to the very last minute.
The cadets were first evacuated to Aleppo International Airport by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) 4th Division. They were the last to leave Aleppo city, moving towards the town of al-Safira in the southern countryside. Upon arriving, the troops were ambushed and besieged by militants, including from the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.
Yet again, the cadets refused to surrender, according to the sources. Besieged on the rooftops of a few buildings in the area of al-Waha near al-Safira, the young men, some aged just 18, fought alongside their commanders, killing or wounding dozens of militants.
In one case, a small isolated group of cadets killed at least eight militants in a clash from point blank, the sources said.
As militants began to amass a large force to attack the cadets on December 1, the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) intervened and the SAA’s 25th Special Mission Forces Division began advancing towards al-Safira from the eastern countryside of Hama to evacuate them.
The first Russian strikes destroyed a multiple rocket launch system and eliminated an entire gathering of militants.
Within a few hours, the cadets began to move under the cover of Russian strikes. The militants could no longer afford to chase them. After more than 24 hours of fighting, HTS and its allies gave up. The SAA and the VKS managed to reach the cadets and evacuate them.
The fall of Aleppo city was marked by corruption and betrayal, yet the story of the cadets from the Al-Assad Military Academy shows that many Syrians are still willing to fight. The successful operation to evacuate the troops wouldn’t have been possible without the intervention of the VKS.
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signs and symbols. acts omissions interpretations. the patient diagnosed with terminal illness has 3 phases denial anger acceptance. they’re all acting out phase one as puppets on the patients with the world to lose strings. they’re all in denial.together rather like the enlightened meeting in the salons of the french nobility on thd eve of the revolution to discuss the future ..
“a sad and shameful day for the english speaking world; johnson… you tube . signs .
waif ,there’s more royal gala queen mary and king frederik received president abdel.. you tube .
nb the red and white flag of the royal houses of egypt the knights templars switzerland etcetera. the great pyramid.
hundreds of cadets were rescued while syria lost most of the half of it’s territory within a week. russia keeps embarrassing itself internationally, even the sirian rebels can suprise russia i understand deeply rooted incompetence of the russian system but even then how it’s possible in 2024 when a child can conduct a surveillance operation with a drone not spot 100.000 rebels getting ready for an attack in the middle of a desert?
idlib is not a desert, but a hilly and sparsely forested terrain. it wasn’t 100 000 rebels but around 20 to maybe 30 000 terrorists at most. still i agree this was complete debacle and failure on part of the saa and russia.
thank you for the correction. still a couple of months after kursk incursion we have this. i think radical change in the russian military system is a must also the russian leadership should also consider having a man in charge who can lead the country through wartime. putin with all respect obviously can not.
putin should forcibly take over kiev and odesa nd destroy all hts military sites and turkey check points in syria.putin should stop delay game and use oreniks while usa/nato study how to encounter it.
erdogan will split up bricks if allowed by putin to join and fly to trump and make new deals.any demarcation zone in syria is mean for empowering nazis and destroy russia.bayraktar are coming.
if the dwarf in moscow were a true patriot (like peter, catherine or stalin), he would defend russia’s vital strategic space in the mediterranean (homs, damascus, latakia, the tartus naval base and the nearby air base), even with nuclear weapons against turkey. but he does nothing because he is a handicap and a traitor, and russian patriots must remove him from office before it is too late, that is, now.
if turkey expels russia from its bases on the syrian mediterranean coast, it could in the future close the bosphorus and completely confine the russian navy to the black sea, with catastrophic geopolitical consequences for russia.
fab3000s are currently being dropped on the headloppers- photo on rt.
could we please stop call these zio puppets rebels and call them what they really are. terrorists. from the smalls foot soldier to the head leader. all are terrorists doing zionist and american dirty work.
the us broke it’s own anti terror laws this week when some bitch from cnn interviewed the head of the hts head choppers which is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the us and the uk, when will she be arrested or is that a silly question.
bless these soldiers, but the syrian arab republic is lost as we once knew. it will be a buffer battle ground between all major players in the middle east. alawaites, assyrian, armenian, greek, kurds, sunni arabs, turks, turkmen and druze will each try to find their preferred alliances
east front, like ukraine.
putin and assad are cucks
666666 666666
people will believe what the media. tells them to believe, george orwell. when the deceiving, fake and impostors, so call syrian rebels are really nothing more than americans cia, british mi6, israelis mossad and turkish mit, well pay assassins, murderers and terrorists in disguise. america is rule by zionism, c.o.