RNA - The army units engaged in tough battle with the ISIL terrorists in Northeastern Hama after destroying the defense lines of the terrorists there and managed to capture several more strategic villages.
The Syrian troops killed several terrorists and injured many more in fierce clashes over controlling of the strategic regions. They also destroyed military equipment of the terrorists.
The Syrian army also continued its advances in other key provinces across Syria.
Hama
The Syrian Army troops stormed the strongholds of the ISIL in Northeastern Hama and seized control over five villages on Sunday.
The army won back the villages of Abu al-Qosour, Talihan, Abu al-Kasour, Tal Talihan and Ma'asaran after heavy fighting with ISIL.
Terrorists suffered heavy casualties and their military hardware sustained major damage in the attack.
In a relevant development, the Syrian army troops captured another strategic region in Northeastern Hama after a tough battle with terrorists.
The army men engaged in a tough battle with the ISIL in Northeastern Hama and captured a key hill overlooking the village of Rasm al-Dahal North of the villages of Qanafez.
The ISIL suffered heavy casualties and its military hardware sustained major damage in the attack.
Idlib
The Syrian Army troops, backed up by artillery and missile units and Air Force, managed to close off a strategic road to the town of Saraqib that is under the control of the Al-Nusra Front (Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at or the Levant Liberation Board) terrorist group, local sources confirmed on Sunday.
The sources said that the artillery and missile units and the army aircraft pounded the positions of Al-Nusra in Saraqib and its outskirts in Eastern Idlib, inflicting major losses on the terrorists.
The sources went on to say that the warplanes conducted heavy bombardment against a convoy of Al-Nusra, including several tanks and military vehicles, East of Saraqib on Aleppo-Idlib road, destroying most of the vehicles and tanks.
They added that the army has now cut off a key supply road to Saraqib that pushed the terrorist front in Eastern Idlib towards full collapse.
Aleppo
Deputy Turkish Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said Sunday if the PYD/PKK terror group does not leave Syria's Manbij, Turkey will move there and towards East of Euphrates River.
In remarks made to CNN Turk, Bozdag, who is also a Spokesman for the government, said the PYD/PKK terrorists had to leave Manbij, a strategic city West of the Euphrates in Northern Syria.
"If they [PYD/PKK] do not leave Manbij, we will move into Manbij and towards the East of Euphrates," he added.
Tensions are on the rise between Turkey and the US after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that his country's army plan to expand their invasion of the Kurdish-held territories in Syria from Afrin to Manbij where some 3,000 US military forces are deployed.
Since the start of Operation “Olive Branch” by Ankara and its allied militants, Turkey has stressed that its forces would spread to the East, while Erdogan has stressed that his army would soon invade Manbij and continue the assault to the border with Iraq some 900km away.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also warned that it was "necessary for them (US) to immediately withdraw from Manbij" as well as take "more concrete steps rather than words" to end support for the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of the United States Central Command, had said that withdrawing US forces from Manbij is "not something we are looking into".
Turkey’s Operation ‘Olive Branch’ kicked off mid-January from air and ground around the area of Afrin in Syria's Aleppo to oust the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as a terror organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has stressed that Turkish offensive in Afrin is part of Ankara's strategy based on supporting terrorists.
The Syrian government has condemned the “brutal Turkish aggression” against the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin, rejecting Ankara’s claim about having informed Damascus of the operation.
Damascus
The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the false allegations made by the United States that accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta in Damascus Countryside.
An official source at the Ministry condemned the US allegations against the Syrian government, claiming Damascus used chlorine gas or sarin gas in Eastern Ghouta East of Damascus city.
As reported by Fars News Agancy, the Ministry further said that the allegations are no more than lies built upon stories by those whom the US administration calls them as partners on the ground.
The source said that the “partners on the ground” who are loyal to American policies are terrorists and murderers who are responsible for shedding Syrian blood to justify US and Western interference in Syrian affairs.
The source noted that such US allegations always coincide with efforts to end the crisis in Syria via a peaceful solution, and they also come after the US and its allies failed to pass resolutions against Syria at the Security Council and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
The source went on to stress that the Syrian government is against the use of chemical weapons in any place, any time, and under any circumstances, because their use is against its moral principles and contradicts the confirmed fact that it handed over its entire chemical arsenal to the OPCW.
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