A Russian Su-24 takes off on a combat mission at Hemeimeem airbase, Syria, on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015. IMAGE: AP PHOTO/VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
On June 25, videos surfaced online showing some of the recent Russian airstrikes and Syrian artillery strikes that hit positions of al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies in the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib.
The strikes reportedly targeted logistic bases and drone workshops of the terrorist groups, who escalated their attacks earlier this week.
The most recent wave of Russian airstrikes covered the northern Lattakia countryside, the western and southern countryside of Idlib as well as the outskirts of the governorate’s city center. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group, said that the airstrikes killed a number of militants of HTS and the Turkistan Islamic Party.
The Russian and Syrian strikes came in response to a series of drone attacks that targeted government-held areas in Lattakia and Hama in the last few days. The attacks, which were blamed on HTS, claimed the lives of five people. Two of the victims were women and two others were children.
The deadly drone attacks were a blatant violation of the ceasefire in Greater Idlib, which was brokered by Russia and Turkey more than three years ago.
HTS and its allies have been challenging the ceasefire for the last few months in what appears to be an attempt to sabotage the Turkish-Syrian normalization talks, which are sponsored by Russia and Iran. The terrorist groups fear that Ankara could withdraw its forces from Greater Idlib to facilitate an agreement with Damascus. This would allow the Syrian military to resume ground operations in the region.
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