Syrian army forces inflict heavy losses on Turkish-backed militants in Aleppo

Syrian government forces, supported by fighters from allied popular defense groups, have carried out a major counterattack against Turkish-backed Takfiri militants in the country’s embattled northwestern province of Aleppo, inflicting losses on them.

News ID: 449235

Date: 23 February 2020 - 15:28

RNA - Syria's pro-government al-Masdar news agency reported that militants from the so-called National Front for Liberation and the Takfiri Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group launched an offensive to retake the town of al-Nayrab southeast of the city of Aleppo.

Syrian army units, though, closely monitored their movements for hours, before they mounted a major operation and killed dozens of the extremists in the process.

Syria’s official news agency SANA later released video footage taken from an unmanned aerial vehicle, which shows the destruction of terrorist armed vehicles, including tanks, armored personnel carriers and pickup trucks loaded with weapons.

Separately, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that as many as 2,700 Turkish military vehicles have been sent into Syria over the past 19 days, as the Syrian government forces are making advances  in the northern province of Idlib and Aleppo.

The Britain-based war monitor reported on Saturday that a Turkish convoy of 80 vehicles had entered Idlib, and that 7,400 Turkish soldiers had been deployed in the area and neighboring Aleppo.

Also on Saturday, Syrian army soldiers pounded the positions of Turkish-sponsored militants in the villages of Deir Sunbul, Joseph, Sufuhon, Kansafra, Banin and Sarjah besides the towns of Kafr Awid, Ihsim and al-Bara in Idlib province.

SANA reported that the strikes resulted in the deaths of many terrorists, and destruction of their military equipment.

On Wednesday, Moscow warned Ankara against launching attacks against Syrian army soldiers after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to commence a military operation in Idlib region.

Moscow’s reaction came as Ankara has been beefing up its military presence in Idlib, the last militant bastion in a nine-year war, where several anti-Damascus militant outfits receive Turkey’s support in their persisting militancy against the Syrian government.

Syria and Russia have condemned Turkey’s cross-border offensive into the Arab country to allegedly clear anti-Ankara Kurdish militants from a sliver of land bordering the Anatolian country.

Back in 2018, Moscow and Ankara reached an Iran-brokered deal, known as the Sochi agreement, to set up a de-militarization zone mainly situated in northern Idlib.

However, the HTS Takfiri terrorist group, which is the dominant terror organization in the province, and other militant groups, along with those supported by Ankara, have been launching attacks on army and civilian targets from the buffer zone, where Turkish observation posts have been established to monitor the enforcement of the ceasefire there.

Syrian forces uncover militant prison in northwestern Aleppo

Meanwhile, Syrian army soldiers have discovered a detention center previously run by foreign-backed militants as they were combing liberated areas along the strategically important highway linking Aleppo to the city of A'zaz for hidden ordnance and explosive devices, which terrorists have arguably planted there to slow down the advance of government forces.

SANA reported that the prison constituted several cells, and was apparently run by members of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, Takfiri terrorist group before fleeing in the wake of territorial gains by Syrian troops.

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