Syria in Last 24 Hours:

Terrorists Sustain Heavy Losses in Army Offensive in Homs Province

Rasa - The Syrian army attacked the terrorists in Homs province, and inflicted heavy losses on them.

News ID: 426213

Date: 01 January 2017 - 21:42

RNA - The Syrian army attacked the terrorists in Homs province, and inflicted heavy losses on them.

The Syrian army killed and wounded scores of terrorists in the Eastern territories of Homs province.

The Syrian army also inflicted heavy losses on the terrorist groups in other key regions across Syria.

Homs

Syrian Army soldiers continued their devastating attacks on ISIL's defense lines in Eastern Homs and recaptured a strategic village and its surroundings after hours of non-stop battle.

The army men continued their operations against ISIL to recapture lost lands and managed to retake full control over the village of Sharifeh West of the ISIL-held city of Palmyra (Tadmur), inflicting tens of casualties on the militants.

Dara'a

The Syrian army units inflicted heavy casualties and damages on terrorists in Dara'a province after repelling their attack.

Clashes erupted between the army forces and the terrorists in Dara'a al-Balad when the militants sought to take control of al-Manshiyeh district but the Syrian troops and their allies' timely reaction repulsed the offensive and killed and wounded tens of the terrorists.

The Syrian soldiers also targeted the terrorists' positions in the region and destroyed the launch-pads used by the militants for firing missiles.

Idlib

Al-Nusra Front (that recently renamed to Fatah al-Sham) is preparing war plans to force Ahrar al-Sham militant group out of Idlib after reports said the latter has signed the ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey between the Syrian government and some militant groups, dissident sources said on Saturday.

Sources close to the dissident groups in Northwestern Syria said that Al-Nusra has prepared war plans to capture the entire Idlib province and force Ahrar al-Sham back across the border into Turkey after the latter militant group joined the ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government and the so-called moderate dissidents that tasks Ahrar al-Sham to assign a new mission to all its militants that used to fight against the Syrian government to stand against the Al-Nusra Front as a terrorist group and open war on the Al-Qaeda offshoot in Idlib.

Meantime, media sources reported that Turkey has warned all militant groups in Idlib that merger with al-Nusra would amount to "suicide" as Ankara has agreed to separate al-Nusra Front and extremist commanders from other groups in Northern Syria.

Deir Ezzur

Unidentified gunmen opened fire at a patrol unit of ISIL in a town in East of Deir Ezzur, injuring several militants, field sources said.

The sources said that a patrol unit of the ISIL terrorists in the town of al-Asharah was attacked by unidentified armed men, adding that several militants were wounded in the attack.

The sources added that after the attack the ISIL intensified security measures in a neighborhood near al-Asharah, arresting tens of young men and checking civilians' cars.

The ISIL terrorists have seized tens of houses in the towns of al-Asharah and al-Mayadeen under the pretext that their owners are abroad and handed them over to the families of its forces that have come from other regions, specially from Iraq.

Reports said earlier on Saturday that Syrian Army troops warded off a second large-scale attack of ISIL on their defense lines in Deir Ezzur's neighborhoods, inflicting major casualties on the militants.

Aleppo

The Syrian Army soldiers and popular forces are getting ready to launch a massive operation in the Eastern parts of Aleppo province to drive ISIL terrorists out of a key town in the region, military sources disclosed on Saturday.

The sources said that the army's Tiger Forces lifted the three and a half year long siege on the Kuweires Military Airport in Eastern Aleppo in November 2015 that paved the way for their eventual reentry into the al-Bab Plateau and Deir Hafer Plains.

"However, the Tiger Forces offensive was put on hold by the army's CentCom in March 2015, as the nationwide ceasefire at that time provided them the means to finally liberate Palmyra from the ISIL terrorists," he added.

Now, Palmyra is once again under ISIL's control, but this time around, the Syrian army has a large number of reserves from their Republican Guard forces that are still positioned in Eastern Aleppo, he explained.

The source said these Republican Guard units will not be redeployed to the Palmyra front like the Tiger Forces; instead, they will take part in the Syrian Arab Army's first real offensive to liberate the ISIL's stronghold of Deir Hafer near Raqqa province's border.

Another important component to take in account is the Turkish Army's offensive at al-Bab; this operation has kept the ISIL terrorists busy, while also leaving them short on manpower at the Deir Hafer front, according to the source.

Military sources disclosed last month that a large number of Syrian soldiers were deployed at Kuweires airbase to start military operations against the terrorists in al-Bab Northeast of Aleppo province.

"Hundreds of Syrian soldiers are now in Kuweires airbase 40 kilometers to the east of Aleppo city to start al-Bab military operations against the ISIL terrorist group," the Arabic-language media quoted an unnamed military source as saying.

The source said that the Syrian army has sent around 1,000 reinforcement troops to the Eastern countryside of Aleppo to start the operation that aims to create a safe zone in areas in the vicinity of Kuweires airbase, including al-Bab.

"The Syrian government troops' military operation in al-Bab region is also meant to block further advances of the Turkey-backed terrorists in al-Bab region," the source added.

A military source said in November that the Syrian army troops were about to launch a massive operation against ISIL positions in the town of al-Bab in Northeast Aleppo and the town of Deir Hafer in the Eastern part of the province to end the Takfiri terrorists' rule in the region.

"A large number of fresh forces have been dispatched to the Eastern countryside of Aleppo to start military operation against the positions of ISIL to create a larger safe zone around Kuweires airbase," the source said.

"Thousands of army's special forces have been deployed in the Eastern countryside of Aleppo to take part in the liberation operation of al-Bab and Deir Hafer," he further added.

"After recapturing Manbij from ISIL, al-Bab an Deir Hafer have turned into the largest bases of ISIL in Aleppo province," the source said.

Experts believe that army's operations in al-Bab and Deir Hafer that are entrance gates to Raqqa province signify the government forces plan to start an attack on Raqqa soon.

Meantime, media sources disclosed that a number of depots have been discovered in the newly-freed districts of Aleppo city with a large volume of arms and ammunition that are mostly US-made.

The Russian language daily, Izvestia, reported that the militants left behind several arms depots in the Eastern districts of Aleppo city with a large volume of the weapons, mostly made in the US, adding that the weapons had been supplied to the terrorists in disguise and under the cover of humanitarian aid convoys.

"We have seized several arms depots worth millions of dollars. A large part of the weapons are made in the US. We were not surprised because Damascus had announced many times that the so-called moderate opposition groups were receiving weapons via Turkey and with the funding of the Persian Gulf Arab countries. Meantime, some of the weapons and ammunition had been looted from the army's depots," a high-ranking Syrian security official said.

Former Russian diplomat and expert in Middle-Eastern studies Viacheslav Motozov also said they accused Russia and the Syrian forces of targeting humanitarian aid convoys and now it has been revealed that the trucks of the UN and certain humanitarian organizations were not carrying food stuff but were transferring a large volume of arms and ammunition worth millions of dollars.

Raqqa

29 civilians, including children and women, were killed or wounded in the US-led coalition airstrikes on the town of Debsi Afnan West of Raqqa city, the self-proclaimed capital of ISIL in Northeastern Syria, a medical source disclosed Saturday.

The medial source in al-Tabaqa town said that seven civilians, including three children were killed and 22 more civilians, including women and children, were injured in the coalition air raid on Debsi Afnan.

"The buildings that were targeted in the air raids were the houses of civilians and were not bases of ISIL," the source further underlined.

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