Syria Army Repels Militants' Infiltration Attempt in Hama
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Syrian forces confronted terrorists in Hama after they violated a buffer zone deal in the northern province.
The Takfiri militants’ positions in the vicinity of al-Karim village in the countryside of Hama were targeted after the terrorists launched an attack on military posts in the buffer zone, SANA reported on Saturday.
The report added that a number of the militants were killed and injured in the counterattack.
The militants had attempted to sneak into the village from the direction of al-Sharea and Tweinah areas.
The village, where the clashes broke out, is located in a planned buffer zone, which surrounds Idlib and also parts of the adjacent provinces of Aleppo and Hama.
Meanwhile, army units destroyed mortar cannons and rocket launchpads belonging to terrorist groups in the surroundings of al-Jammaseh and Kafr Naboudah towns in Hama northern countryside.
Under a deal reached following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in September, all militants should have withdrawn from the demilitarization zone by October 15.
However, 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.