Hardline rebels launch major attack on Syrian government forces near Hama
Hardline rebel groups yesterday launched an offensive against government-held parts of north-west Syria near Hama in their biggest attack there since March.
The attack triggered heavy air strikes on rebel territory, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It said air strikes hit three hospitals, a medical centre and premises used by a rescue service in rebel-held Idlib. A Syrian military source denied the report, saying only insurgent convoys and positions had been hit.
The insurgent attack north of Hama revived hostilities in the north-west region near the Turkish border that has been relatively calm in recent months as Russian-led diplomacy seeks to shore up ceasefires in western Syria.
Islamist militants who hold sway in Idlib reject the diplomacy, including a tripartite deal struck last week by Moscow, Tehran and Ankara to deploy an observer force on the edge of an Idlib de-escalation zone.
A Syrian army source said the attack launched on several fronts was being repelled, and the insurgents had suffered losses.
An insurgent source said that rebels were making advances in the northern Hama countryside, in an area where Bashar Al Assad and his allies have been rolling back rebel gains over the past two years.
The observatory said insurgents taking part in the assault included Tahrir Al Sham, the jihadist Turkistan Islamic Party and rebels fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army. They had captured four villages, it said.
A group formally known as Jabhat Al Nusra, which cut ties with Al Qaeda and rebranded last year, spearheads the Tahrir Al Sham alliance of Islamist groups.
Hizbollah said Syrian army air strikes were targeting insurgents in the northern Hama and southern Idlib area.
Insurgents advanced to within a few kilometres of government-held Hama city this year, before the Syrian army and its allies retook the territory in April.
Ceasefire deals in western Syria – for years the main theatre of the war – have helped the Syrian army and its allies advance against ISIL in the east, where government forces are battling the extremist group in Deir Ezzor.
A US-backed militia force, the Syrian Democratic Forces, is waging a separate offensive against ISIL in Deir Ezzor province, focusing on areas east of the Euphrates River.
The rival forces have generally stayed out of each other’s way, with the river often acting as a dividing line.
Syrian government forces and their allies have, however, crossed into the SDF’s area of operations on the eastern bank of in recent days.