Syrian Forces Repel Major Militant Attack in Hama
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Syrian forces repelled a major attack by militants in the northern countryside of Hama, killing and injuring scores of them.
Syrian forces clashed with terrorists that had infiltrated towards military points in the direction of al-Zakat-Hasraya in Hama, the Syrian military said in a statement, the official SANA news agency reported on Wednesday.
"Terrorist organizations in Hama northern countryside mobilized large numbers of gunmen and booby-trapped vehicles late on Tuesday and launched an attack in the direction of al-Zakat-Hasraya as our forces, who were operating there, were forced to withdraw from some of our advanced positions,” it said.
The attack was thwarted after the Syrian forces launched a counterattack, it added. “Our units are hunting down the remnants of the militants in the area”.
The area, 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.
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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in September, all militants should have withdrawn from the demilitarization zone by October 15.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 2011.
