Syrian Forces Repel Militant Attack in Hama
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Syrian forces and their allies repelled a major attack by Takfiri terrorists in the western province of Haman, inflicting heavy losses on them.
The clashes took place on the edge of the northwestern Idlib province as the militants attempted to move towards Syrian military posts in Hama northern countryside, SANA reported on Thursday.
The terrorists and their affiliated groups moved from the direction of Tal al-Sakher and al-Ganbera villages while they were attempting to infiltrate towards a number of military points in the vicinity of al-Mougheir village and Moaskar Bridiege in Hama.
During the counterattack, dozens of the militants lost their lives and many other fled the battlefield, the report added.
The villages, where the clashes broke out, are located in a planned buffer zone, which surrounds Idlib and also parts of the adjacent provinces of Aleppo and Hama.
Under a deal reached following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in September, all militants must have withdrawn from the demilitarization zone by October 15.
However, the al-Qaeda-linked Takfiri terrorists said they refuse to either leave the buffer zone or hand over their weapons.
Moscow believed that the 15-20 kilometer buffer zone would help stop attacks from Idlib-based militants on Syrian army positions and Russia's military bases in the flashpoint region.
Idlib and some surrounding areas are the last major bastions of Takfiri terrorists and anti-government militants in Syria, where the Syrian government has in recent months retaken much of the territory it had lost since the conflict erupted in the country in 2011.
