Russian, Syrian assault on occupied territory
Insurgents in coastal heartlands pounded by airstrikes, warships
SYRIAN troops and allied militia backed by Russian air strikes and cruise missiles fired from warships attacked rebels forces yesterday as the government extended a major offensive to recapture territory in the west of the country.
Rebel advances in western Syria earlier this year had threatened the coastal region vital to President Bashar al-Assad’s control of the area and prompted Russia’s intervention on his side last week.
In a further show of force, the Russian Defence Ministry said missiles fired from its ships in the Caspian Sea hit weapons factories, arms dumps, command centres and training camps supporting Islamic State forces.
Ground forces loyal to the government targeted insurgents in the Ghab Plain region of western Syria with heavy barrages of surface-to-surface missiles as Russian warplanes bombed from above, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel fighting there.
It said rebels had shot down a helicopter in Hama province in western Syria. It was unclear if it was Syrian or Russian.
Syria said a major military operation was under way.
Its armed forces “have launched wide-ranging attacks to deal with the terrorist groups and to liberate the areas which had suffered from the terrorist rule and crimes”, the Army Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Ali Abdullah Ayoub, was quoted as saying by state media.
Ayoub did not say which areas were being targeted. He said new fighting units, including one called the Fourth Assault Corps, had been set up to wage the campaign, and the army now held the military initiative.
The Observatory’s head, Rami Abdulrahman, said an assault launched by the army and its foreign allies on Wednesday in nearby areas of Hama province had so far failed to make significant gains, however.
“At least 13 regime forces were killed… The clashes also killed 11 (rebel) fighters,” he said, and the numbers were expected to rise as more casualties were confirmed.
About 15 army tanks and armoured vehicles had been destroyed or immobilised by rebel missile strikes, Abdulrahman and an opposition activist on the ground said.
Wednesday’s operation in Hama appeared to be the first major assault co-ordinated between Syrian troops and militia on the ground, and Russian warplanes and naval ships.
The Ghab Plain, also in Hama, lies next to a mountain range that forms the heartland of Assad’s Alawite sect.
Recapturing it from the alliance of rebel groups, including alQaeda’s Nusra Front which thrust into the area in July, would help secure Assad’s coastal heartlands
Attacks to reclaim areas that suffered under terrorist rule
and provide a platform to drive the rebels back from other areas.
A fighter from the Ajnad alSham insurgent group who uses the name Abu al-Baraa al-Hamawi said Russian jets had been bombing since dawn. It was not the first time the Russians had bombed the area, but this was their most ferocious attack, he said.