After fierce fighting and a two-day-long siege, the Syrian army restored control over the town of Al Habeit in the province of Idlib. It's situated six miles from the major stronghold of the terrorist group Jabhat Al-Nusra. Moreover, government troops managed to cut the fighters' supply channels. It was also reported yesterday that three high-ranking leaders of the Jaysh Al-Ahrar pro-Turkish group were liquidated on the border between Idlib and Hama. How are they going to destroy the last stronghold of the fighters? The one to answer this question is our military correspondent, the head of the VGTRK Bureau in the Middle East and Northern Africa, Evgeniy Poddubny, he's joining us in the studio.
- Good day, Evgeniy, so what is going on in the de-escalation zone, in the Idlib province?
- Yes, Vera, good day! First of all, it's clear that the fighters are doing everything they can to disrupt the process of political settlement in the north of Syria. Let's discuss it in the right order. The fighters of the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham terrorist group are persistent in their attempts to disrupt the ceasefire regime in the Idlib de-escalation zone. It's already clear that pro-Turkish troops of the so-called armed opposition are not capable of controlling the radicals. The members of the former Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, for several days in a row, are trying to organize a disruption in the defense of the government forces in the provinces of Latakia, Hama, and Aleppo.
Back on August 5th, the mastermind of the former Al-Nusra, which is divided into the groups Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, declared that the fighters under his command would not follow the regime of ceasefire in the Idlib de-escalation zone. Just a day after the Al-Julani's statement, twelve Syrian soldiers along with four civilians were wounded. The truce was disrupted 25 times. From bad to worse, on the night of August 7th, fifty terrorists attacked the Syrian troops in the area of the village of Al-Hwaiz. The terrorists' attack was supported by both rocket and cannon artillery. On the same morning, the radicals flung into a battle a battalion reinforced with tanks and with tanks and armored cars. For the breakthrough, the terrorists used a suicide attacker on a mine-studded pickup. As a result, the terrorists comprising of many Central Asia natives wedged into the defense of the government forces by a third of a mile. A little later, in another direction, near the Al-Mallah height, around a hundred radicals tried to breach the defensive line of the Syrian army. The fighters of the government forces managed to stop the terrorists' squad. In a day after that, the terrorists of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham and other radical groups tried to repeat the attacks, besides, they started mass bombardment of communities located at the line of contact.
From the Kabana area in the Latakia highland, the radicals started a rocket artillery assault against the Russian Khmeimim Air Base. Four rockets exploded 1.5 miles to the north-east of the airbase. As a result, two civilians died and four suffered wounds of varying degrees. There's a child among the wounded. Russian soldiers didn't suffer. On the ninth and tenth of August, the radicals also attacked the governmental forces' divisions. They used a multiple launch rocket system and fired mortar guns. During all these days, the fighters have been deploying additional forces to the line of contact. Russian data recorders detected the redeployment of terrorists' troops, tanks, artillery, and cars with heavy machine guns. The concentration of the radicals' assault force is accompanied by permanent bombardment of communities in the Syrian provinces of Hama, Latakia, and Aleppo. Fourteen Syrian Army's servicemen died in the Achan area. The terrorists conducted an artillery preparation before the attack. They used makeshift over-caliber mines and standard 120-millimeter ammunition. Next, they sent in a 70-fighter-strong squad to fight. But this assault was repulsed. Nine more Syrian servicemen died during the radicals' attack near the settlement of Ikko. There was another recent attack where the terrorists of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham employed about fifty fighters, armored vehicles and pick-ups with machine guns and suicide attackers.
The terrorists were advancing in the direction of Mureck-Achan and Kafer ain- Kafer-Nbud. The aggregations of radicals were attacked with artillery and airstrikes, the rebel groups suffered considerable losses and were forced to retreat back to their point of departure. It was reported by a representative of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria. During all these days, the aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces is conducting targeted airstrikes at the bases of the terrorists' groups. Russian pilots are destroying armored vehicles, fighters, and artillery. Russia's Defense Ministry provides drone footage. We have proof that radical Islamists are redeploying their forces to the Idlib de-escalation zone.
The new aggravation in Idlib demonstrated that the terrorist organization who found their last stronghold in the enclave are doing everything they can to disrupt political reconciliation in Northern Syria. Meanwhile, the opposition troops that participate in the peace process are not capable to disarm or reform the radical Islamists' formations. Their interests are too different, hence different goals. In addition, the terrorists from the former Al-Qaeda branch have always been stronger in terms of warfare.
Moreover, they've been actively absorbing the weakened troops of the allegedly moderate opposition. I should mention one more crucial thing.
Why is the situation in Syrian Idlib so important for Russia? In the enclave of international terrorism, there are thousands of fighters from the CIS countries and Russian republics of Northern Caucasus. Even there, they present a real threat to Russia. The terrorists continue to recruit people on our territory, they are planning assaults and terrorist attacks, and are getting financial support from the like-minded radical Islamists. Now, it's clear that the political reconciliation process that was initiated by Moscow is downright impossible without prior liquidating terrorist formations in Idlib. Meanwhile, other sides of the negotiation process cannot fulfill this task yet.
- Thank you! The situation in the Idlib de-escalation zone was covered by the head of the VGTRK Bureau in the Middle East and Northern Africa, Evgeniy Poddubny.
