Commander of the Tiger Forces, Suheil al-Hassan, and Tiger Forces members
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has begun its final preparations to launch a large-scale military operation around the northern governorate of Idlib, which is controlled by several radical groups, the Syrian news outlet Muraselon reported on March 3, citing a military source.
“The terrorist groups crossed the line recently by killing many civilians, injuring others and causing severe damage in the infrastructure … This is a clear violation of the Sochi agreement [between Russia and Turkey],” the source told Muraselon.
According to the source, the operation will be aimed at capturing the militants’ positions inside the demilitarized zone around Idlib. This mean that the operation could cover northern Lattakia, northern Hama, southern Idlib and western Aleppo.
Few hours after this report, Syrian opposition activists said that the remaining civilians within the demilitarized zone received messaged from the SAA asking them to leave the zone immediately.
One of the warning messages sent to the civilians by the SAA
“You are in a special operation area, leave the area immediately,” the SAA’s message reads.
In the last two months, the SAA massed large forces around the demilitarized zone. However, many sources said that the army was just reinforcing its positions there.
The claims about a nearing military operation around Idlib came few hours after the attack by al-Qaeda-affiliated group, Ansar al-Tawhid, on the SAA positions in northern Hama. More than 16 Syrian service members were reportedly killed in the attack.
