In the afternoon of February 16, radical militants stepped up their attacks on civilian in northern and northwestern Hama shelling the towns of al-Suqaylabiyah and Masyaf. According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), this new rocket attack injured at least three civilians.
Earlier, the militants shelled the residential areas in the towns Mahardah and Salhab along with a nearby power plant. These attacks marked the 6th month of the Russian-Turkish demilitarized zone agreement, which failed to achieve any of its goals.
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) responded to these new attacks by destroying three positons of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the towns of Qalaat al-Madiq, Hirsh al-Qasabiyah and Maarrat al-Nu’man.
In an attempt to maintain the demilitarized zone, Russia and Turkey reached a new agreement few days ago. According to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russian and Turkish forces will carry out joint patrols within the zone under the agreement.
Local observers doubt that the militants will comply with the new agreement. The continues shelling indicate that the militants are actually planning to escalate the situation, likely due to the lack of any serious military response.
