HTS fighters in the northern Homs countryside pocket, Illustrative image
On June 25, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) announced in an official statement that it is ready to launch a military operation against the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in northern Syria in order to support militants in the southern governorates of Daraa and al-Quneitra.
The former branch of al-Qaeda in Syria also called on all the armed groups in northern Syria to form a joint operations room as soon as possible to organize the proposed military operation.
Two days later, the al-Qaeda affiliated groups Horas al-Din, Ansar al-Din and Ansar Allah announced their readiness to form an operations room with HTS and to launch a new joint attack on the SAA in northern Syria, according to the HTS-linked news network Iba’a.
Syrian opposition activists claimed that the proposed attack will target the towns of al-Fu’ah and Kafriya in the eastern Idlib countryside. Thousands of pro-government civilians and fighters are currently besieged inside the two towns by HTS and its allies.
Any attack of HTS and its allies on the two besieged towns will be a major violation of the Turkish-Russian-Iranian de-escalation zone in the governorate of Idlib. Such an attack will also allow the SAA, Iranian-backed forces and the Russian Aerospace Forces to resume their military operations there in order to break the siege on the towns.
