Militants In Syria’s Greater Idlib Fire Rockets At Lattakia, Aleppo In New Escalation

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Al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies fired several salvos of rockets from the Greater Idlib region at government-held areas in Lattakia and Aleppo on October 7 afternoon, killing two civilians and wounding dozens others.

Sputnik reported that several rockets targeted al-Qardaha, the hometown of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as the villages of al-Ruwaymiya, al-Qatariya and Kafriya in the western and southern countryside of Lattakia.

According to the Russian news agency, one of the rockets hit a house in al-Ruwaymiya, killing a man and his wife and wounding their two children.

Another rocket hit an electrical substation near Kafriya, causing material losses only, Director General of the General Electricity Company in Latakia Governorate, Jaber Assi.

In the northern Aleppo countryside, a salvo of rockets hit the towns of Nubul and al-Zahraa. Sputnik said that 25 civilians were wounded. Four were sent to hospitals in Aleppo city because they were in a life threatening condition. The rest were treated for minor wounds in the two towns.

There were also reports of shelling on Aleppo city center. Syrian pro-government news sources said that several armed drones were shot down over the city. However, this is yet to be confirmed.

The escalation came after a wave of Syrian and Russian strikes that hit positions of HTS and its allies in different parts of Idlib over the past two days.

The strikes were carried out in response to a drone attack that targeted the annual graduation ceremony at the Syrian Military Academy near the central city of Homs on October 5. The attack claimed the lives of 89 civilians and service members and left more than 277 other wounded. HTS and its allies were blamed for the attack.

The rocket attacks on Lattakia and Aleppo will not likely go unpunished. The Syrian Arab Army and the Russian Aerospace Forces will certainly carry out retaliatory strikes in the coming hours and days.

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