Frontline of Idlib Province: Terrorists Battle Amongst Themselves as Syrian Army Closes In

Coming back to the security conference in Munich, it’s worth saying that the words of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, sounded weighty. He warned against the destruction of the unity and sovereignty of Syria.

Coming back to the security conference in Munich, it’s worth saying that the words of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, sounded weighty. He warned against the destruction of the unity and sovereignty of Syria.

Staffan de Mistura: "How many colors? It's an X-ray of Syria. There are fragmentation and disunity. That's very dangerous. If everything stays unchanged, and we don’t ensure unity and sovereignty, the Balkanization of the country can happen. The answer to the challenges of the fragmentation in Syria is a political process: a constitution, presidential elections, and a parliamentary election under UN supervision. The Astana process is useful. It confines itself to its tasks, which were fulfilled. Sochi fulfilled its task. We made a decision to establish a Constitutional Commission in Geneva. Only the UN will provide legitimacy, and we’ll be actively involved".

 

While diplomats are accomplishing their tasks, the Syrian Army continues to drive the Al-Nusra terrorists out of its territory.

Our military correspondent Anton Stepanenko will present the latest information from the Hama Governorate on the border with the Idlib Governorate.

This group of soldiers is going to the front today. They said goodbye to their families, collected their weapons and came here, to the church of St. George the Victorious. It’s their tradition: to pray before and after going to the trenches for everyone to come back safely.

Jamal Musa, militia fighter: "The service is over, but the keeper always opens the church for us. What do I pray about? What do they pray about in wartime? I'm not afraid of death. I'm afraid of dying in vain. I'm afraid of my death not helping my companions, my family, and my city. That's what scares me".

Their city is called Al-Suqaylabiyah. It’s an Orthodox town in the north of the Hama Governorate. It became a frontline town in 2012. Extremists of various groups from the Idlib Governorate, from moderate to irreconcilable ones, tried to take it. They shelled and stormed it, but no one managed to get through these guys’ positions.

- How are you? Doing okay?

- I'm fine! Thank you!

The commander of the militia, Nabil, is showing us his city. Everyone knows him. He organized the city's defense, gathered the fighters, and found the weapons. Even a Mosin sniper rifle from 1944 came in handy. Now, the militia is accompanied by a unit of soldiers from the army corps—armed with tanks and artillery. Al-Suqaylabiyah is in the north of the Hama Governorate, and if the extremists take it, they can come close to the capital of the governorate, an important transport hub of the whole country’s center. He says "shahid." This is how people of Orthodox Al-Suqaylabiyah call those who died in battles with extremists.

Nabil, militia commander: "This man died in Palmyra, this one in Raqqa. These three brothers died across all the frontlines of Syria. Of course, some guys died defending Al-Suqaylabiyah".

The road to the frontline goes past the city’s wall of memory, which features portraits of militiamen, soldiers, and civilians killed in the 7 years of the terrorist intervention against Syria. And the frontline is nearby. From the northern outskirts of Al-Suqaylabiyah, you can see a neighboring town occupied by militants. It’s just a little less than a kilometer away.

This is also the frontline with the Idlib Governorate, which became the sanctuary of different kinds of extremists. But the situation on this front differs from the others a lot. And it's all explained by the fact that the Ahrar Al-Sham group's positions are on that side. The Ahrar Al-Sham group doesn’t care about Al-Suqaylabiyah right now. It’s threatened by the fighters of the Al-Nusra Front — they’re occupying a neighboring town.

Nabil, militia commander: "We have an unspoken truce with the Ahrar militants. But Al-Nusra doesn’t stop its attempts to knock them out and capture Al-Suqaylabiyah. Generally speaking, both are enemies for us, because the entire neighboring Governorate of Idlib is still under their control."

This week, Al-Nusra’s ranks became noticeably smaller. The group holding some areas in the Governorates of Idlib and Hama was first separated. Then, moving from the south and north towards each other, Syrian troops in Hama trapped at least 3,500 fighters in the cauldron. The pace of the offensive reached 20 kilometers per day. They were taking back 15-20 villages a day.

The cauldron which the Al-Nusra fighters got caught in the east of the Hama Governorate was eliminated, and now they're checking what and who could remain in the liberated villages. The assault team is starting a clearing operation. EOD engineers go together with soldiers. The militants retreated in a hurry but left a lot of surprises behind.

Nabil, militia commander: "This is called a garland. The locking mechanisms are connected in a four-, five-, six-meter chain and can be hidden anywhere. They’re connected to landmines, which can be, for example, on the roadside. It looks like a stone in a pile of boulders".

These are the clearing group’s trophies from one village alone. These are anti-personnel and anti-vehicle IEDs. In the final stage of the operation to eliminate the cauldron in the Hama Governorate, the troops liberated at least 80 settlements. And each one of them is now being cleared.

Ali, militia officer: "Having closed this cauldron, our troops have now completely blocked the militants in the Idlib Governorate. Moreover, they’re creating a buffer zone along its administrative border, pushing extremists deeper inside".

According to the agreement, the fighters in the Idlib Governorate are now Turkey’s concern. This week, its military began putting watch posts along the administrative border between the Governorates of Idlib and Hama, moving from the north to the south. Syrian artillery is eliminating extremists in the buffer zone.

Anton Stepanenko, Artyom Grigoryan, Alexander Pushin, Vesti News of the Week, the Idlib front, Syria.