Syria Support Movement solidarity with the Syrian people
from the News Desk at The Cradle, June 25, 2023
The Russian air force carried out a series of raids targeting military bases of Turkish-backed armed groups in the countryside of Idlib and Latakia over the past two days, Al-Mayadeen reported on 25 June.
Russian warplanes targeted bases belonging to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the city of Jisr al-Shughur in the northwestern countryside of Idlib, as well as the headquarters of HTS and its allies in the Al-Fateh al-Mubin operations room in the city of Ariha, south of Idlib.
UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) claimed that at least four civilians and three HTS militants were killed in the Jisr al-Shughur strikes.
Russian forces were responding to drone strikes over the past week that they blame on HTS, the monitor said.
Yesterday, the Syrian and Russian air forces jointly carried out a series of raids targeting military targets of the HTS and the Turkistani Islamic Party (TIP) in the countryside of Idlib and Latakia.
The Syrian army’s reconnaissance planes monitored HTS and TIP movements near the towns of Badama and al-Najiyah in the western countryside of Idlib and the al-Khader hills in the northern countryside of Latakia.
Local sources told Al-Mayadeen that, “The warplanes targeted the armed groups that were bombing civilian sites in the countryside of Hama and Latakia, over the past two days.”
On 23 June, two women and one child were killed and a fourth seriously injured in an HTS drone attack in the city of Salhab in the northwestern Hama countryside.
HTS, formerly known as the Al-Qaeda affiliated Nusra Front, conquered Idlib governorate in 2015 at the head of a US, Turkish, Saudi and Qatar supported coalition in 2015. Foreign support for extremist armed groups began in 2011 as part of the US-led covert war to topple the Syrian government.
TOW anti-tank missiles supplied by the US to Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups played a key role in the HTS-led coalition’s defeat of the Syrian Army in Idlib. Due to the HTS affiliation with Al-Qaeda, US official Brett McGurk later called Idlib the largest Al-Qaeda safehaven since 9/11.
The TIP, a group that originated in Xinjiang province of eastern China, assisted HTS in the 2015 conquest of Idlib. TIP fighters and their families occupied the homes of Christians ethnically cleansed from Idlib following the conquest.
Recently, the Syrian government has participated in Russian-sponsored talks with Turkiye to normalize relations. Damascus is demanding that Ankara stop support for its proxy groups, including HTS and the TIP, and also withdraw its own troops occupying areas of northern Syria, before any normalization is possible.
