Syria in Last 24 Hours:

Army Sends Extensive Military Forces, Equipment to Lattakia

Rasa - The Syrian army dispatched a large number of forces, weapons and military equipment to Lattakia after repulsing terrorists' attacks on its positions in the Northern parts of the province.

News ID: 436444

Date: 16 February 2018 - 21:15

RNA - The Syrian army forces engaged in clashes with the terrorists who had attacked the army positions near Kinsibba, killing and wounding a number of militants.

Meantime, the Syrian army continued its military advances in other parts of Syria, including Damascus, over past 24 hours.

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

Lattakia

The Syrian army dispatched a large number of forces, weapons and military equipment to Lattakia after repulsing terrorists' attacks on its positions in the Northern parts of the province.

The Syrian army forces engaged in clashes with the al-Nusra Front (Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at or the Levant Liberation Board) terrorists who had attacked the army positions near Kinsibba, killing and wounding a number of militants.

Field sources also confirmed that the Syrian army has sent a large number of its forces and equipment to Kinsibba in Northern Lattakia.

The army soldiers have been dispatched to this region after their positions came under repeated attacks by the terrorists.

In a relevant development last Sunday, the Syrian army troops fended off a heavy offensive of a group of terrorists in Northern Lattakia, killing the entire members of the group.

The army men exchanged heavy fire with a group of terrorists after militants violated the de-escalation zone's ceasefire agreement in Tal Hadadah East of the town of Kinsibba in Northern Lattakia.

The army men warded off the attack and killed all the gunmen of the terrorist group.

Idilb

Field sources reported on Thursday that the Turkish army troops that arrived in Idlib in the form of a military convoy earlier on Thursday have set up a new checkpoint in the Southern parts of the province.

The sources said that the Turkish army convoy, consisting of tens of heavy and personnel-carrier vehicles has entered Idlib through the village of Kafr Lousin at the border with Syria.

They added that the convoy has been deployed in the village of al-Sarman near the town of Ma'ar al-Na'aman in Southern Idlib in line with the Turkish plan to set up the sixth point to monitor implementation of the de-escalation agreement in Idlib province.

Meantime, a Turkish delegation on Wednesday visited several points in Southern Idlib.

The Turkish forces have so far been deployed in five regions, including Tal al-Touqan and Salouy, respectively in the Eastern and Northern Idlib province, and Mount Simon and Mount Aqil in Western Aleppo and Tal Issa in Southern Aleppo.

Dissident-affiliated websites had reported last week that the Turkish army has deployed in the regions to set up monitoring posts in the de-escalation zone after reaching an agreement with Al-Nusra Front.

Damascus

Syrian anti-aircraft guns confronted Israeli reconnaissance aircraft over the Southwestern Quneitra province, forcing them to retreat.

"Syrian air defenses have repelled Israeli surveillance planes over Quneitra, forcing them to leave Syrian airspace," the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

The incident comes just a few days after the Syrian military downed an Israeli F-16 warplane over Syrian territory.

The Israeli military confirmed that one F-16 had gone down in Northern Israel, and that its two pilots had ejected and had been located and transferred to hospital.

Over the past years, Israel has frequently attacked targets in Syria, often claiming that it hit positions or convoys belonging to Iran. This is while Iran has no military presence in Syrian territory, only offering advisory military assistance to the Syrian government fighting an all-out foreign-sponsored militancy.

Aleppo

A large number of Kurdish militias have joined their US-backed comrades in Afrin as the Turkish army and militants backed by Ankara intensified attacks against the Kurds in the region.

According to Fars News Agancy, field sources said that a major part of the People's Protection Units (YPG) stationed in Eastern Deir Ezzur have moved to Afrin as well as the borders of Hasaka and Raqqa provinces with Turkey – which are threatened by the Turkish army.

They added that the YPG forces have delivered control of their points to other US-backed forces named Deir Ezzur military council.

The Deir Ezzur military council is the Arab branch of the US-backed forces in Eastern Deir Ezzur, consisting of forces who have earlier fought along with al-Qaeda, the ISIL and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) terrorists.

847/940