Illustrative image.
Militants led by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) developed their large-scale offensive against the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), codenamed Operation Deterrence of Aggression, on November 30 afternoon.
In Aleppo, the militants expanded their control in the city despite heavy clashes with the SAA and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which arrived recently. The militants took losses. However, they captured Aleppo international Airport.
The militants also advanced in the countryside of the governorate, with Turkish-backed factions imposing control of the Kuweires Military Aviation Institute.
Meanwhile, HTS and its allies claimed complete control over the governorate of Idlib, including the entire countryside. Dozens of towns in the southern and eastern countryside fell into the hands of the militants, who advanced under intense Russian and Syrian airstrikes.
After their success in Aleppo and Idlib, the militants pushed into Hama capturing several towns in the northern countryside. One of the towns captured by the militants is said to be Murek, which is located less than 25 kilometers away from Hamas city.
At least 155 militants of HTS, 28 others from Turkey-backed factions and some 79 Syrian troops have been killed since the start of the offensive in Aleppo and neighboring Idlib on November 27, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based pro-opposition monitoring group.
The so-called Operation Deterrence of Aggression was launched early on November 27 from the Greater Idlib region, which includes Idlib city and parts of the governorates countryside as well as several towns in the northern Lattakia countryside, the northwestern Hamas countryside and the western countryside of Aleppo.
The Turkish military maintains a large presence in the region. However, HTS is the de-facto ruler. The terrorist group’s offensive put an end to a ceasefire agreement that was brokered by both Russia and Turkey on March 5 of 2020.
In the month leading to the offensive several reports talked about a plan by HTS and its allies to attack Aleppo city in order to take advantage of the distraction caused by the ongoing Israeli war on both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Moreover, Russian intelligence warned that the secret services of the Kiev regime were actively providing support to militants in Greater Idlib.
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not looking good for the syrian army..
this is also happening because of “not any thinkers allowed” -nat0 keep getting their a$$e$ handed to them in kursk and the remaining mop up by russian forces in the eastern donbas. my single biggest question for china and india given all that cheap russian oil and gas -where are they in supporting their most prodigious briics partner with their military personnel?…
obviously lot of brilliant minds at russian mod too, always on the back foot while the pindos do whatever they want
blitzkrieg against a weak oppenant
this is the end of secular syria . russia is very weak now !
whos the king of the castle?
the elders of zion
the syrian army looked like the byzantine army, corrupt and weak. this is a disgrace for russia and iran.
the problem is that hbz who repel the israeli invasion are deployed in south lebanon and saa regular army is a complety joke againts these terrorists
if not russia and iran steps in this will be the biggest victory of usirael in decades. that russia is locked in syria doesn’t mean it can’t work with iran, here we need elite air born troops special forces. iran has this. if no action iran will be totally defeated. that assad failed can be investigated at a later stage. now it’s time for action.
the syrians need to hold their damn positions and allow air power to attack the roads. this isn’t hard, there are only like two major highways we are talking about
yevgeny prigozhin’s ‘accident’ with the grenade is a gift that keeps on giving.
nice work russia!… remembering all your sacrifices 11 years ago now all for nought!…
iran and russia and north korea and china need to send troops to regain control of these regions.
i’m trying to make sense of what happened to the saa, iranian militias, and russian forces in syria. if you have a good idea or critical information on what happened, could you send it to my by email here: henngwah@gmail.com. i want write an in-depth analysis tomorrow for threatwatchers.org. i invite you guys to share your thoughts there. no censorship and you can type comments of up to 300 words. it’s a new website but i’ll work on it aggressively.