On January 29, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) advanced towards the city of Saraqib in the southeastern Idlib countryside.
The army imposed control of the towns of al-Qahira, al-Jaradah and Khan Assubul. Al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies withdrew from the three towns without showing any real resistance.
Click to see full-size map. Source: (@Suriyakmaps) on Twitter.
SAA forces are now only 9 km away from Saraqib’s city center, the next target of the ongoing military operation in southeast Idlib. The city is located on the M5 highway, which links the capital Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo.
A day earlier, the army liberated the biggest urban center on the strategic highway, Ma`arat al-Nu`man city. The capture of the city was a major blow to HTS and its allies.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its allies appear to be unabpe to stop the SAA’s rapid advance in southeast Idlib if no ‘unexpected; ceasefire is imposed. Militants reportedly suffered serious losses during the last two weeks, with some sources reporting the death of more than 150 fighters.
Syrian Army Gains More Ground In Southwest Aleppo Amid Collapse Of Militants’ Defenses
Great. Exactly as planned! Don’t stop before the M5 highway is secured. God bless you, SAA and allies.
Terrorist supporter Turkey has put up a new post on M5 highway just before Saraqib.
It will be surrouded like the posts in Morek, Surman and Maar Hitat.
Exactly, stupid move by Turkey, rumors tell that the Turkish convoy where shelled and hit by the SAA……..hopefully they get the message.
I remember how they sent a convoy to Khan Shaykoun in order to stop SAA’s advance on it. The SAA then shelled the convoy and stopped it with this move.
They should block access to the Turkish post in the liberated area.
Sadly Turkey is allowed to access the liberated areas, due to the Astana agreement.
yes sadly. According to the agreement in 2018, the Turks where also supposed to free the DM zone and M5 for terrorist latest mid 2019, but nothing happened.,instead they are supplying the terrorist and giving them intelligent data.
Somehow it was clear that Turkey won’t fulfill the agreement.
yes, the Russian can`t be that naive.
I think that was a smart tactic by Russia anyway, because now they can say they’ve tried to solve the Idlibv issue via a peaceful way. Russia fulfilled its commitment, Turkey didn’t. Plus when Idlib is fully liberated, the SAA and Russia can use the “observation posts” to pressure Turkey to handover Afrin, ES and the NE back to the SAA, otherwise they could blocked Turkey’s convoys to the posts.
I agree.
for secured higway M5 SAA take futher the city hish south maraat el mun!
They will take it.
Good job SAA! Please no useless ceasefire, which would unnecessarily kill syrian soldiers. After the liberation of the M5 highway, the Tigers can get their rest.
Take all territory under M4, then sever the connection between idlib and afrin, after that pull out the popcorn and watch idlib and their surrounding area bleed out without reinforcement from afrin and other northern frontier