Illustrative image, by the SANA
On February 14, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) foiled three infiltrations attempts by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkistan Islamic Party.
According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), militants from both groups tried to launch attacks on the SAA’s positions and residential areas in the government-held part of the northern Hama countryside and the southeastern Idlib countryside.
The TIP is openly affiliated with the al-Qaeda, while HTS announced its defection from the terrorist organization two years ago. Despite this, both groups are close allies.
The army responded to these violations of the Russian-Turkish demilitarized zone agreement by shelling several militant positions in al-Lataminah in northern Hama and Khan Shaykhun in southern Idlib.
These recent infiltration attempts reflect the deteriorating security situation in the demilitarized zone around Idlib. The leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran discussed the situation there during a summit in the Russian city of Sochi few hours ago. However, the outcome of the summit is yet to be announced.
