South Front
Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
On July 12, a large blast wiped out an ammunition depot of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) in the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib.
Photos that surfaced online showed fire and thick smoke rising from the scene of the blast at the city of Jisr al-Shughur in the western Idlib countryside. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, said that three militants of the TIP were wounded in the blast.
The TIP is a close ally of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the de-facto ruler of Greater Idlib and the former main branch of al-Qaeda in Syria.
According to Syrian pro-government news sources, the blast was the result of a precision artillery strike by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). Russian drones were spotted over Jisr al-Shughur before the blast.
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- Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
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- Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
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- Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
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- Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
The SAA and its allies stepped up strikes on terrorist groups in Greater Idlib in the last few weeks in an attempt to enforce a ceasefire that was brokered by Russia and Turkey more than three years ago. Despite receiving several blows, HTS, the TIP and other groups in the region continue to violate the ceasefire.
On July 6, the SAA repelled an attack by suicide militants from HTS in the northern Lattakia countryside. Since then, the terrorist group has launched several indirect fire attacks from Greater Idlib at nearby government-held areas.
Overall, the escalation in Greater Idlib appears to be an attempt by HTS and its allies, including the TIP, to sabotage the Turkish-Syrian normalization talks which are sponsored by Russia and Iran. The terrorist groups fear that an agreement between Ankara and Damascus could mark the end of their de-facto state in the region.
