A Russian Su-24 takes off on a combat mission at Hemeimeem airbase, Syria, on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015. IMAGE: AP PHOTO/VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
On September 8, a new wave of Russian airstrikes hit militants’ positions in the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib.
The airstrikes targeted the town of al-Bara in the southern Idlib countryside as well as the outskirt of the town of Ma’arrat Misrin in the eastern countryside of the governorate. Both towns are known to be strongholds of al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the de-facto ruler of Greater Idlib.
الطيران الحربي الروسي يجدد غاراته الجوية على بلدة #البارة جنوبي #إدلب تزامناً مع تحليق مكثف لطيران الاستطلاع الروسي في سماء المنطقة.. #الارهاب_الروسي #سوريا #ادلب #تركيا #الضامن_قاتل pic.twitter.com/jqafs3f94H
— شبكة عاجل سوريا (@syria55s) September 8, 2021
طائرات الاحتلال الروسي تشن غارات جوية على محيط مدينة معرة مصرين ومحيط بلدة البارة في ريف ادلب . pic.twitter.com/36s2JgWoqn
— ميلاد فضل (@freeehsem) September 8, 2021
A day earlier, several Russian airstrikes targeted positions of HTS in Greater Idlib. The Syrian Arab Army also shelled Idlib’s city center.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Russian warplanes have carried out more than 50 airstrikes on Greater Idlib since the start of September. Most of the recent airstrikes targeted posts, fortifications, headquarters and ammunition depots of HTS and its allies.
HTS and its allies, namely the Turkish-backed National Front for Liberation and al-Qaeda’s Ansar al-Tawhid, violate the ceasefire in greater Idlib on a daily basis. The ceasefire was brokered by Russia and Turkey on 5 March 2020.
The Russian Aerospace Forces will not likely cease their combat operations in Greater Idlib until HTS and its allies are deterred. This may require a ground operation led by the Syrian Arab Army.
I would think that the Syrian artillery strikes in Idlib were laser guided shells. Bravo to the SAA.
The only thing those russian beasts destroy are hospitals, lots of them since 2015. Instead of kneeling to the Turks Assad will try to avoid the unavoidable by gassing civillians in Idlib once again.
But in the end the Syrian opposition stopped being moderate and became even more radical than PKK.
They might drop thousands of bombs but is a fact that they didn’t manage to regain a single inch of land in the past 1 and half year (how many downvote I will get this time?)