Syria in Last 24 Hours:

Army Discovers French, European Munitions at Terrorists' Positions in Hama

Rasa - Media sources disclosed that the Syrian security forces have found a depot of French and European ammunition in Northern Hama.

News ID: 426407

Date: 09 January 2017 - 22:12

RNA - The Syrian forces seized an ammunition depot of terrorist groups in Northern Hama containing 45 French 68mm rockets and missiles charged with highly explosive warheads.

Meantime, the Syrian army and popular forces continued their military advances in other parts of Syria, including Homs and Idlib, over the past 24 hours.

Tens of terrorists were killed and dozens more were injured during the Syrian army's operations in Syria's key provinces.

Hama

Media sources disclosed that the Syrian security forces have found a depot of French and European ammunition in Northern Hama.

The Arabic language al-Hadath news website reported that the Syrian forces seized an ammunition depot of terrorist groups in Northern Hama containing 45 French 68mm rockets and missiles charged with highly explosive warheads.

The forces also found a large number of 81mm mortar shells made in Europe.

Media sources disclosed in late December that a number of depots were discovered in the newly-freed districts of Aleppo city with a large volume of arms and ammunition that were mostly US-made.

Homs

Syrian intelligence and army troops thwart terrorists' imminent attack in regions West of Tadmur (Palmyra) and al-Awamid heights in Homs province through a preemptive attack.

A field source told FNA on Sunday that tens of terrorists had plotted to occupy the Eastern parts of the 4th station in regions West of Tadmur and al-Awamid and al-Bareda heights near al-Quaryatayn city but their exact location was found and pounded by the army's missile and artillery fire.

"The missile and artillery units fired guided missiles and mortar rounds at the terrorists and killed and wounded 34 ISIL members," the source added.

In a relevant development on Sunday, the Syrian and Russian warplanes carried out joint combat flights over a long convoy of ISIL's military vehicles West of the ancient city of Palmyra (Tadmur), inflicting major casualties on the terrorists and destroying a number of their vehicles.

The ISIL convoy was heading to battlefields in Eastern Homs to take part in an offensive against the government forces' positions.

The Russian and Syrian warplanes pounded the ISIL's convoy, destroying 14 machinegun-equipped vehicles and nine more bomb-laden suicide cars.

Tens of ISIL terrorists accompanying the convoy were killed or wounded in the attack.

Early reports said ISIL has transferred its injured members to Raqqa province.

Idlib

Local sources in Idlib province disclosed that the Russian air force launched a drone attack on commanders of Fatah al-Sham Front (previously known as the al-Nusra Front) a couple of days ago after receiving tip from the Syrian security forces.

The sources said that the Russian drone attack on a gathering of Fatah al-Sham was done based on secret information that the Syrian intelligence service had gained through its agents that are active in Nusra-held regions in Idlib.

The sources rejected news that the US-led coalition did the drone attack, saying if the coalition had done the attack, Washington would have claimed its responsibility right away to prove its forces' involvement in the war on terrorism.

Damascus

Syrian Army troops engaged in fierce clashes with terrorist groups in Eastern Ghouta and took full control over more key lands, inflicting major losses on the militants.

The army soldiers hit terrorist centers hard near the town of Harazma and took back the Missile Battalion Base (Katibat al-Savarikh), Harazma cemetery, a strategic square that overlooks Harazma town and more positions, killing or wounding a number of militants in hours long battle.

Also, the army troops managed to advance against militants North of Harazma farms and in another flank towards Tal (hill) Farzat, and seized control of al-Akrad (Kurds) grand mosque.

Aleppo

A senior Syrian military expert pointed out that the Syrian army capture of Aleppo was the main root cause of Ankara's recent change of policies towards Moscow and Tehran, as the main allies of Syria in war on terrorism.

Kamal al-Jafa, a high-ranking supervisor in Aleppo Operations Room, underlined that the army's victories against terrorists in Aleppo has played a major role in pushing Turkey to adopt a new diplomacy and seek expansion of cooperation with Russia and Iran over the Syria crisis.

He further said that Aleppo's liberation and change in Turkey's regional diplomacy have caused new arrangement in the terrorist groups' front, and added, "Terrorists lost their combat spirit and decided to lay down arms when they found out that Turkey changed policy and could not be their backer any more."

Al-Jafa further noted very good intelligence cooperation of local residents of Idlib province with the Syrian Army over terrorists' movements and gatherings after the liberation of Aleppo, and said, "Liberation of Idlib will not take long time. The Idlib issue can be solved via diplomacy and in cooperation with the province's locals and meantime Damascus government reconciliation efforts. Idlib is also likely to join the nationwide reconciliation plan."

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