Cleanup Operation in Syria: SAA Begins Operations Against Rebel Cauldrons Around Major Cities
Today in Syria, militants, violating the truce, tried to strike from several directions at once. There were mortar shells explosions in Aleppo, Damascus, and Latakia, where machine-guns were also heard. Government forces had to start a counterattack to drive extremists out from their positions and to divert fire from the homes of civilians.
Our military correspondent and my colleague, Anton Stepanenko, is now working on the front line. He had to take risks in order to shoot the video you’re about to see.
Syrian are troops entrenched in the Idlib Governorate. They began an offensive to the west. The town of Khwein al-Kabir is in the offensive zone. It can be seen with a naked eye. It’s only 3 km away from the army positions. The road along the front line is now considered kind of safe, although in some places it’s spread before the militants’ eyes. Therefore it was under heavy mortar fire. The liberated town of Abu Dali where the Russian military police were attacked last September. Now, the militants' mortars were silenced. Drones patrol the sky, and Syrian artillery is working on the positions from which mines are still being thrown.
A Syrian Army fighter: "At some point, they tried to fight us, but they don’t have enough artillery, and it’s not very accurate".
Now, they look more to the sky and listen. Extremists launch drones from Khwein al-Kabir towards Syrian positions. For example, these China-made bomb-load quadcopters as well as such self-made disposable ones made of polystyrene, a piece of sewer pipe, and a flight processor. It costs $300 and works without a target, but they’re trying to win by quantity.
A Syrian Army fighter: "We knocked down these ones this morning. Every unit has an observer, and as soon as he sees something in the sky, all the soldiers open fire".
And this isn’t the only problem in this sector of the front. The cauldron northeast of the Hama Governorate, which the Al-Nusra Front group got caught into, is almost eliminated. We say "almost" because most of the militants were killed in the cauldron or during an attempt to break through to their positions, in Idlib.
Nizar Khodr, the Syrian Army fighter: "Extremists realized that they can’t break out in groups and can’t stay there either. And now, they’re trying to go out one by one".
They mainly go at night, but sometimes in the daytime as well. There are still several towns in the cauldron, which weren't freed yet. The army had to and still has to fight on two fronts, it’s not quite in the rear. Extremists are still hoping to knock out Syrian troops from the east of the Idlib Governorate.
Anton Stepanenko, Artyom Grilyagin, Alexander Pushin, Vesti, Idlib, Syria.