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The Russian and Syrian defense ministries released several reports about intense clashes between militants and the Syrian Army in southeastern Idlib and southwestern Aleppo.
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is repelling a large-scale attack on its positions in the southeastern Idlib countryside, the Ministry of Defense of Syria claimed in an official statement released on January 23.
The ministry said that the attack, led by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is targeting the towns of al-Tah, Abu Jurif and Samka.
“Through the use of various types of weapons, including vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs)، and under heavy fire cover, the terrorists managed to penetrate some positons of the army on the direction of al-Tah, Abu Hurif and Samka,” the statement reads.
According to the Syrian MoD, the SAA redeployed its troops to repel the terrorists’ attack. Heavy clashes are currently taking place in the region.
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Earlier on the same day, the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria reported that about 600 militants attacked SAA positions on the contact line in Idlib and Aleppo provinces:
- A group of up to 270 militants, supported by 38 armed pickups attacked Syrian Army positions near At-Tah, and Muaysirunah. A group of Wadi as-Saane in southeastern Idlib;
- Up to 250 militants, supported by 2 BMP vehicles and 30 armed pickups attacked Syrian Army positions near Abu Dafn, Bars and Huan as-Shaf in southeastern Idlib;
- Up to 50 militants, supported by 4 vehicles armed with weapons, attacked Syrian Army positions near Rashidin 4 and al-Jazirah near Aleppo city.
According to the Russian side, government forces eliminated up to 50 militants, and wounded up to 90 others. At the same time, nearly 40 Syrian troops were killed and up to 80 injured, the Center added.
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On January 22, the Russian military reported that the Syrian Army repelled an attack by militants on its positions near At Tah in southeastern Idlib. According to the report, the attack involved at least 30 militants with 3 vehicles equipped with weapons.
In a separate report, the Russian Reconciliation Center said that 46 Syrian service members have been killed and 77 were wounded in recent clashes with radical militants in Greater Idlib in the period from January 16 to January 19. According to the report, 57 civilians were killed and 116 others were injured as a result of attacks and shelling by militants.
These reports were not confirmed by any pro-government or pro-opposition sources. They didn’t report any large ground attack on SAA positions during the last 48 hours. HTS and its allies launched dozens of attacks from the region in the last few days. However, somehow attacks involving hundreds of militants and tens pieces of military equipment went unnoticed. One of the explanations is that they did not happen.
The motives behind the Syrian and Russian claims remain unclear. The two countries may be preparing public opinion for a large-scale ground operation in Greater Idlib, that has been repeatedly forecasted by pro-government sources. At the same time, these reports could be a part of the media operation designed to draw the audience’s attention from some other developments.
CIA project continues arming & feeding ISIS.
Obama’s boys. The war criminal skates on, he will never be brought to justice.
95% of Americans couldn’t tell you WTF “Timber Sycamore” means.
Obama’s not in office now. These are somebody else’s boys. These presidents are all the same.
CENTCOM shouldn’t have any problem arranging a series of massive airstrikes in Idlib against these filthy, foreign al Qaeda offspring head-choppers. Syria and Russia would probably appreciate the help.
Oh, that’s right. FFS, al Qaeda head-choppers in Idlib are on our side, and CENTCOM supports them. God bless America!
More proof the inept Butcher Regime can’t take on some under-equipped moderate rebels. What a joke of an army. Without the Russkies and Mullah Regime helping them, they’d be done for :-]
Just stick to scamming little old ladies out of their life savings which is something you ARE good at.. Nice to see you are making use of the soap Jacob.
Fuck off oven-dodger.
The “moderate” terrorists are hardly ‘under-equipped”-they’ve got some of the most “powerful” gov’t’s in the world supplying, equipping, arming and training them-not to mention treating their wounded and flying bombing sorties against Syria on their behalf. Such as Israel, of course.
Does anybody have doubts about the benefits for Turkey and its terrorists of the cease fires ?, maybe I am wrong.
I don’t hear comments on the evacuations of civilians during these temporary cease fires but IMHO there is only one side of this that truly demonstrates compassion for the common people who through no fault of their own are used as hostages while the other shows empathy and realizes that for the Phoenix rising from the ashes will need the good will of humanity which only one side demonstrates by acts not words. When the time comes most will wish for such compassion including the killers who I hope are not shown an escape from the blood drenched hands.
both russia and syria know exactly whats going on, putin loves erdodog and will always keep giving him ceasefires whenever and wherever he wants at the cost of SAA, its truly a damn shame, i wish iran or iraq or china was as powerful and as committing as russia is to help syria
Mr. Putin and any responsible president has to maintain diplomatic relations with all parties. Turkey is a NATO member and if Russia were to go to war with Turkey then all the NATO nations would join the fight on Turkey’s side. It doesn’t mean that Mr.Putin is trying to not help Syria. I’m sure Pres. Assad understands Russia’s position.
why should he maintain relations with turkey and israel who do not have syrias best intentions in mind? i understand turkey is a nato member and that he is trying to convert him to russias side, but mister putin needs to understand that erdogan probably knows this and erdogan is playing both sides, trying to get the best of both sides, and doesnt seem to want to fully commit to either side
Well, bro, if Mr. Putin were to break off all relations with Turkey and Israel, then he would no longer have a means to negotiate anything with them. He believes, from what I’ve seen of him on YouTube (Inessa S. is an excellent channel), that diplomacy is the first and best way to deal with other countries. Why make an enemy if it isn’t necessary? The way Russia is armed, these countries know better than to not listen when Russia is at the negotiating table… not that Russia threatens people (it’s not the US, after all, throwing its weight around to smaller countries). This, anyway, is my understanding of the matter.
You would need to enter KIA and wounded impact from the SAA & Russian AF’s to get a clear picture of the ebb and flow the article presents. The softening up of militant terrorist defenses for a penetrating sweep and cauldrons developments (killing fields) after the attempt to give passage for civilians is exhausted appears to be quickening now ………
Wither we agree or not Putin Syrian ceasefires are only befitting terrorists and destroying Syria arm forces.
It’s good to see that the plethora of Turkish observation posts are having an affect by keeping order in the region. :)
IMO, the conflicting reports will have no effect on public opinion. Those who are bothered already know what is going on. Most are waiting for the SAA to liberate Syria and overturn the US/nato/Isreali/suadi induced chaos caused by these irresponsible administrations. One day the people will be heard.
yes, from your mouth to Gods ears :))))
Inshallah. Although i feel it will be the efforts of man that shall prevail.
Inshallah.
The beneficiary Erdodig has succeeded in transferring terrorists to Libya. His proxies have manage to attack SAA in Aleppo,Deir Ezzor,Aleppo,Raqqa and in Russian naval base district.
It’s due to the wonderful ceasefire declare by Erdogan’s best friend, Vladimir Putin ,who is now prostrating himself at the foot of his master Netanyahu .
The terrorists seem to be mobilizing their best fighters and bringing them to the front lines in Idlib, are they trying to consolidate their positions or are they planning something else, mmm, they could be. And I’ve noticed the air assault on western Aleppo has been contained to areas closer to the battle lines, so hopefully that will put an end to that growing civilian casualty list. Not one comment on the forum about the false claims, LOL, gee I wonder why, good on you SF, I love it when you make some of your readers slip a cog or two, maybe even choke a little.
I think the terrorists are showing desperation. As for the comments on “the forum about the false claims”, I don’t pretend to know why they are being made. Perhaps as SF said, there is a plan in the works from Russian and Syrian Depts. of Defense.
They’re desperate and angry, and their mobilizing heaps of their very limited manpower and equipment in a desperate attempt to try and save themselves, they can see what’s about to happen better than most SF readers can, they know they’re only one step away from oblivion.
The ‘false claims’ article was just more confusing spin, didn’t you notice they conflated 2 different issues again, this is the most important line, “In a separate report, the Russian Reconciliation Center said that 46 Syrian service members have been killed and 77 were wounded in recent clashes with radical militants in Greater Idlib in the period from January 16 to January 19.- [and then they added this whopper] – !!!According to the report, 57 civilians were killed and 116 others were injured as a result of attacks and shelling by militants!!!.” That was the biggest lie they told, all the rest of the lies they added were just trying to obscure the one I highlighted. As to SF’s speculative explanation,
“The motives behind the Syrian and Russian claims remain unclear. The two countries may be preparing public opinion for a large-scale ground operation in Greater Idlib, that has been repeatedly forecasted by pro-government sources.”
I find that laughable, they never have to hide that info, they can’t anyway,
“At the same time, these reports could be a part of the media operation designed to draw the audience’s attention from some other developments.”
This explanation however does makes sense, and as to what the development was I have my own ideas. The Aleppo air campaign has changed tactics for the 3 days now, for the first few days they bombed the hell out of all of western Aleppo, for the last few days they’ve kept it really close to the actual battlefront, do you wonder why. !!!According to the report, 57 civilians were killed and 116 others were injured as a result of attacks and shelling by militants!!! No the militants didn’t kill most of them, we did, that line should’ve read like this, !According to the report, 57 civilians were killed and 116 others were injured as a result of a combination of Russian and Syrian airstrikes on heavily populated areas of Aleppo, and also shelling by militants against civilians in government held areas!, and then it should’ve added, !sadly the vast majority of those deaths were due to our sides airstrikes! I’m totally opposed to this air campaign against Aleppo, it’s way too much and way too fast, and destined to kill nearly as many civilians as it does combatants, narrowing down the area of attack will certainly help minimise civilian casualties, but it’s still going to do too much damage. That’s the new development Karen, they realized their air campaign was doing just as much harm as good, and now they’ve changed their tactics trying to minimise civilian casualties, now they’re mainly sticking to attacks against the front lines and not striking deeper into the areas where civilians are living. Who ever wants to admit they just accidentally killed a bunch of people they’re actually desperately trying to save. But today’s news shows were back in Idlib taking back more territory, so hopefully that’s where we stay for a while, there’s more chance of us hitting the right people with airstrikes down here.
Maybe you’re right. If it’s true that it was Russian and Syrian air power that killed civilians, i’m sure they thought-maybe at the time-that air strikes were the only way to get the terrorists.Their ground attacks do not seem to have been gaining anything against well-equipped and armed militants.
With close air support and the 25th division heading the assault they’re going gangbusters again, 5 towns already, Yipee.