Syrian Army Wards Off Terrorists' Offensive in Hama, Idlib
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The Syrian army forces engaged in heavy clashes with a group of terrorists in a provincial area between southern countryside of Idlib and Northern Hama.
Units of the Syrian army destroyed dens and fortifications of terrorists in the area in response to the repeated violation of the de-escalation zones agreement in the region.
SANA reported from Hama that the army carried out artillery strikes on positions of terrorists in the surrounding of al-Hweiz village to the north of al-Ghab plain, killing and injuring scores of militants.
The army also struck fortifications of terrorists in the town of Kfar Zeita north of Hama.
Under a deal reached following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in September 2018, all militants should have withdrawn from the demilitarization zone by October 15.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.