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On May 11, fighters of the Syrian National Defense Forces (NDF) in the besieged towns of al-Fu’ah and Kafriya in the eastern Idlib countryside repelled an attack by radical militants on their positions from the eastern direction, according to the Hezbollah media wing. Local sources said that the NDF had lost one of its fighters while repelling the attack.
No group has claimed responsibility for the failed attack yet. However, Syrian pro-government sources said that the attack had been carried out by fighters of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and Jaysh al-Ahrar.
In response to the attack, warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out a series of airstrikes on positions of HTS and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the villages of al-Sawaghiya, Taftanaz and Ram Hamdan east of al-Fu’ah and Kafriya, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Fighters of the FSA carried out a similar attack on the two besieged towns on March 17. Back then, the NDF repelled the attack killing more than 15 FSA fighters.
Recently, many radical figures, including the Saudi cleric Muhammad al-Mohaisany, called for launching attacks on the besieged towns of al-Fu’ah and Kafriya to avenge the militants’ major defeat in the Eastern Ghouta region.
Due to these threats, Syrian pro-government activists believe that the remaining NDF fighters and civilians in the towns of al-Fu’ah and Kafriya may be evacuated later this year in the framework of the Astana agreement.
