Illustrative image.
On May 20, a lone militant attacked a position of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) on the frontline of the northern Lattakia countryside.
The militant was gunned down by Syrian troops after a brief confrontation. The Uzbek terrorist group Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad (KTJ), which is affiliated with al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack. According to the group, the attack claimed the life of an SAA officer. This is yet to be verified.
KTJ is known to be a close ally of al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the de-facto ruler of the Greater Idlib region.
While most of the terrorist group’s members are Uzbeks, the militant who carried out the attack in the northern Lattakia countryside was a Syrian national. The slain militant was identified as Ahmed Abdullah al-Obaid al-Jarba, also known as “Abu Obaida,” from the town of al-Safirah in the southern countryside of Aleppo.
This was the second time a militant has attacked SAA troops around Greater Idlib on his own. On April 15, a militant from al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansar al-Islam, also an ally of HTS, attacked a military position in the northwestern countryside of Hama. The militant was killed before he could inflict any losses.
These attacks, which are more or less a suicide, are a sign of great desperation among militants in Greater Idlib. Despite the limited scale of these attacks, they constitute a violation of the ceasefire in the region, which was brokered by Russia and Turkey more than two years ago.
Death by SAA – in this case means a Syrian national whose decisions meant no way home. Chose to align with foreign militant/mercenary NATO and Gulf funded Sunni militant terrorists.