A Russian Su-24 strike aircraft in the sky over the Khmeimim airbase in Syria. Photo: Dmitriy Vinogradov / RIA Novosti
Some 400 militants were reportedly killed by Syrian and Russian strikes in the Syrian governorates of Idlib, Aleppo and Hama as a large-scale offensive launched by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies in the north of the country appears to be nearing a complete halt.
Speaking to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency on December 2, a Syrian military official said: “during the past 24 hours, the strikes carried out by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in cooperation with friendly Russian forces operating in Syria continued through concentrated air, missile and artillery strikes on the terrorists’ sites, warehouses, supply lines and movement axes in the countryside of Aleppo and Idlib.”
Five command headquarters, seven ammunition depots, some of which contained drones, were destroyed according to the unnamed official.
“The precise strikes launched by our armed forces in cooperation with friendly Russian forces led to the elimination of more than 400 terrorists, including foreign nationalities, during the past hours,” the official said.
“Our armed forces began moving on several axes in the countryside of Aleppo, Hama and Idlib to encircle the terrorists and expel them from the areas they entered and secure them completely, and to establish new concentration points to prepare for the next attack… with the continued arrival of more military reinforcements to the engagement axes,” he added.
The main front is now the northern Hamas countryside, where the SAA continues to solidify its defenses. HTS and its allies reported some advance, towards the town of Qasr Abu Samra. However, they are taking heavy losses and their advance appears to be nearing a complete halt.
Meanwhile in Aleppo, the militants have not made any new gains in the last 24 hours. However, they are working to clear the city and vast parts of the eastern and southern countryside where SAA troops are no longer present. HTS also brokered a deal with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) under which all Kurdish forces withdrew from the Sheikh Maqsoud district in the city and nearby areas.
The offensive in northern Syria, codenamed Operation Deterrence of Aggression, was launched early on November 27 from what was known as Greater Idlib, a region which included Idlib city and parts of the governorates countryside as well as several towns in the northern Lattakia countryside, the northwestern Hamas countryside and the western countryside of Aleppo.
Turkey, who maintains a large force in the militant-held areas in northern Syria, says that it didn’t approve the offensive. However, this is hard to believe considering its strong influence over HTS and its allies.
Meanwhile, an informed Syrian official told Russia’s RIA Novosti on December 2 that both the United States and Ukraine helped HTS prepare for the offensive, mainly by providing drones and providing technical support. The unnamed official also revealed that the SAA communications were jammed early on in the offensive, noting that such capability is not available for the militants.
While the offensive shocked the SAA in its first days, the situation appears to be stabilizing. Several countries, including Russia, Iran, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, have already voiced their support of the Syrian government. Iranian-backed forces also reported to be arriving via Iraq.
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uncle sam aiding hts terrorists. not surprised at all.
but 400 is not enough jihadister have over 30.000 military
it’s okay. at this rate in 60 days all 30000 will be gone.
but i have read ukraine military is in idlib wtf ?
the israel-hezbollah war: repercussions for iran
who won the israel-hezbollah war?
threatwatchers.org
check it out for an alternative perspective
hezbollah and iran won. there i fixed for you. no one needs to go to your terrorist sponsored website.
i love seeing the lackeys for israel getting wiped out. keep up the good work assad.
how curious, united states of america the one that suffered the biggest blow in its country the most infamous day in history, the famous september 11, which was planned by terrorists is now being helped by none other than the americans themselves. wow i am astonished by the relatives of the victims they were betrayed
pls dont be a clown, calling the deep state inside job 9-11 a extern terrorist attack, while the usa deep state is the biggest worlds terrorist.
jews did 9-11 to start wars in middle east with the blood of the us goyim.
the allies are carving syria like a turkey…heheheh
4000 not 400 sf .comon now.. propaganda nothing more everyone
i told you yesterday that rebels has a deal with sdf.
rebels advance has not halted. they took over dozens of villages today. rebels took today more territory, than russia in three months. you call that halt in advance?
assad hit two hospitals with air strikes today in idlib. we should call him ass-ad-yahu.
why shouldn’t they not bomb hospitals? i bet they had command centres underneath them? no? no western country complained when israhell bombed god knows how many hospitals. i didn’t hear anything from finland. for my sake they should make idlib look like gaza. the faster the better.
are these the last hospitals in idlib? is dusty boy coming back? can we have some more slick white helmet videos?
you both prove my point that russians lack any humanity. most non-christian (over 50%) people in finland are against bombing hospitals in gaza.
yes that is why finland butting hard sanctions on israhell, right? we are tired of empty talk that doesn’t make any difference. your government did nothing for gaza. zero zip null! idlib terrorist loves israhell. they are 100% behind israhell. they don’t give a crap about gaza. so they deserve to be bombed like gaza since they didn’t do anything for them.
russia did zero sanctions against israel so why are you accusing finland? russia is as much with massacring gaza babies. if there were zero christians in finland, there would be sanctions on israel. and there will be one from russia also when you have zero christians.
basicly the more devout christian people are in finland, the more they are ok with killing babies, doing ethnic cleansing, genocide and bombing hospitals. so i reckon you must also be a christian.
probably with muslims it is total opposite. i never heard any islamic terrorist bombing a hospital, or killing babies in purpose. out of 1200 killed by hamas 2 were under the age of 5.
oh, really…😂
yes really. religious christians pretend to be nicer than isis, ku klux clan and hitler, but they are from the same tree here in europe and usa. love thy neighbour translated by old testament genocides. i left christianity when i turned 18.
kinda of like what we heard before kursk was invaded, ransacked and de-occupied of more than 200,000 resident(s), and that the war in the eastern donbas was all but finished!… will believe it when we “officially” stop getting a steady stream of more “say it ain’t so”!…
strange that the arabs and muslims only fight when crusaders and zionists tell them to
attention diversion.. forget about failed ukraine.. look look terrorists in syria again
the muslim world is bedevilled by treachery and backstabbing, serving western interests. if it had been able to present a united front, there never would have been any western occupation or any zionist state in the first place. but outside colonial and neocon/ ziocon interests have always been able to find quisling whores to do their bidding – the kurds, isis, egypt, jordan, gulf dictators. cringing servile bootlicking whores who sell themselves cheap.
syria has been steadfast in its opposition to israel and the neocons. but the same thing can be seen even with syria. in 1973, the iraqi army stood and fought with syria on the golan heights. but in 1991, syria joined in the us/ neocon invasion of iraq. this has always been the case. the medieval middle east was far in advance of europe. but jerusalem was conquered by crusaders in the 1st crusade, 1096-9. why? because there was a civil war going on at the time ….
between sunni and shia, so they just walked in to jerusalem and slaughtered the inhabitants. does anything sound familiar? outside aggressors can always find moslems to whore themslves out and betray fellow moslems. and they sell themselves very cheap.
eradicate the vermin this time, no ceasefire, no peace talks. eradication of these paid scum
absolutely my man.
deeply suspicious that syrian saa-mi did not know this was coming. major fail.
the israel-hezbollah war: repercussions for iran
threatwatchers.org
in my transgender burgerland senile burger gives peace now 1 monthly 32 peso pension —but i can swallow mulatto semen free in gay bars
i’m of the opinion the saa’s competency and battle harden experience was slowly lost on the premise of alledged perpetual iranian and russian support, removal or retirement of capable personnel (who may not necessarily be assad loyalists), over reliance on military formations of limited capability (leaving the professional formations closer to damascus and assad) and the systemic corruption that ever really went away.
like it or not putin has been suprise while chating on his long table with asad.just as he were in kurst incursion.putin give the russian army free hand to operate freely just as the situation appearst. stop interfering.dont mixed your friendship with erdogan in military activities.learn from brutal forces of usa.