For the first time in more than five months, radical militants launched heavy improvised rocket-assisted munitions (IRAMs) at the government-held town of al-Zahar in the northern Aleppo countryside on February 21.
“The terrorist attack caused material damage … However, no civilians were injured,” the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reporter in Aleppo said.
The attack triggered a fierce response from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), which shelled militant positions in the towns of Kafr Nabl, Hass, Basqala, Hish, Babuline, Maasaran and Khan al-Sabil in the southern Idlib countryside.
Over the last few days, militants stepped up their attacks on civilian areas in the government-held parts of Aleppo and Hama. In response, the army began to shell militants’ positions in northern Lattakia, northern Hama, southern Idlib and western Aleppo.
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These attacks are a violation of the Russian-Turkish deconfliction agreement. Recent developments confirm that militants are determined to ignore the agreement. Therefore, the stance of the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance on this kind of “de-escalation” is evolving toward a military option. On February 20, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said that the operation to eliminate terrorists is “inevitable”.
usual russian bs blablablabla…….
from day 1 this Agreement was bs from day 1, when russia gave the green light to TAF and ist jihadi proxies to conquer afrin, and have now finished changing the demographics…
again SAA has til october1 time to FINISH the attack and remove all TAF and jihadis from their soil……..july 2019 date for S-400 delivery to Turkey october1 date for operations of S-400….. then the entire Syrian airforce is useless from damascvus to deir er zoor, hence afrin and idlib will stay turkish..period…
the start of the attack can be no later than April/may…..
Keep in mind SAA entered 8th year of constant fight. Troops need to rest (visit families), gather intelligence, resupply,prepare for final countdown, in meantime ex al-Nusra kicked moderate rebels, “doing Syria a favour”, so that no one can cry over moderates later on, countdown for SAA vs Nusra. Believe this is hidden Russian agenda here.
Time for the SAA to move west from Aleppo and create the final Idlib cauldron. The final head-chopper stampede into Turkey should be hilarious – I wish they would live-stream it. After that, the SAA can seal the Syrian-Turkish border and mow down the remaining Idlib holdouts. Let’s see how well the head-choppers can fight without their western handlers.
West Aleppo must be cleared immediately, that Al Qaeda can still shell Al Zahra within Aleppo city is pure folly. Was nothing learnt at Palmyra.