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On December 22, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) artillery shelled positions of militants in the towns of al-Lataminah and Hasraiyah in the northern Hama countryside in response to new violations of the Russian-Turkish demilitarized zone agreement, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
The state-run agency said that the militants attempted to launch attacks from al-Lataminah and Hasraiyah on residential areas in the government-held part of the northern Hama countryside.
“The strikes infected heavy losses on the terrorist’s personnel and equipment,” the SANA’s reporter in Hama said.
A day earlier, the SAA artillery pounded nine militants-held towns in the northern Hama countryside and the southern Idlib countryside. The shelling was also a response to violations by the al-Qaeda-affiliated Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) and the Turkish-backed Jaysh al-Izza.
Under the Russian-Turkish agreement, the militants are not allowed to deployed heavy weapons or carry out any attacks in the demilitarized zone around the governorate of Idlib. However, Turkey is yet to pressure the militants into respecting the agreement.
Keep the intel good and the tubes hot. This may go on for a long time. SAA has more important issues going on in the NE. :)
The SAA is too weak to do anything in the NE. Assad would be helpless if Turkey invaded to seize all Syrian land east of the Euphrates since Russia did nothing to stop them in Aleppo, Afrin and Idlib.
PZIVJ yes
I always have my doubts with these artillery and airstrikes. It seems debatable how much damage they actually inflict on the enemy. 7 day of artillery barrage on the Somme did not break the German lines in WW1, pounding German cities in WW2 did not break German morale and production either, I wonder if NATO actually hit anything at all during the Kosovo war and we see ISIS survive airstrikes by anyone fairly well. Maskirovska may have been a term the Russians coined for the art of deception in war, I reckon any army that has to operate and survive under enemy air superiority learns to become pretty good at it.
The best way to clean out these rats still seems to be to go in there on the ground and do it yourself. Still no substitute for ye olde Mk.1 infantry man.
When is SAA going to finally clean up this area? I thought the deconfliction agreement was violated a long time ago.
When Russia gives the green light. And that only happens once Russia and Turkey reach a deal. I truly believe the Russian want this to happen ASAP, as the headchoppers keep on sending armed drones to their Latakia airbase, but in the grand strategy keeping Turkey friendly and on ramming course with the West is more important to Russia then taking back Idlib. And I agree.