The General Shari’a Council of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) released a new statement on March 14 threatening Russia and calling for more attacks on government forces around Syria’s Idlib.
“We tell the Russian occupier: there is nothing between us but war, we will not be tricked by your well-known games, no believer should be fooled twice, a land that was freed by blood, we will defend it with blood,” the statement reads.
The HTS council went on to call on the terrorist group’s fighters to “avenge their religion, people and honor” by intensifying their attacks on the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Russian forces.
Despite separating from al-Qaeda in 2017, HTS’ Shari’a Council remained without any change. All the members of the councils are prominent al-Qaeda scholars from Syria and many other countries.
Last week, HTS released a similar threat saying that Russian forces in Syria will face with “long dark nights” and “black days stained with blood.” Following the threat, the terrorist group received a major blow when the Russian Aerospace Forces bombed its ammo depots and positions throughout Idlib.
Local observers believe that these empty threats are aimed at boosting the morale of HTS fighters, who suffered from heavy loses recently.