The Syrian army has captured two towns near the terrorists’ stronghold of Khan Shaykhun in southern Idlib, reaching the edges of a major bastion of foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants.
In their large-scale advance on Thursday night, the troops captured the small town of Madaya and immediately secured it in order to prevent the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorists from reentering it.
The next target after Madaya was the hilltop town of Tal al-Arjahi, which was briefly contested, but later ended with terrorists fully retreating back toward Khan Shaykhun.
The Syrian army has now put its troops at the northwestern flank of Khan Shaykhun, marking the farthest advance north that the army has made in the Idlib Governorate.
The government troops are working to surround Khan Shaykhun from its western and eastern axes, but the progress of the battle in the east is slow in comparison to the west.
Last Sunday, Syrian fighter jets carried out a string of airstrikes against the positions of foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants in the southern part of Idlib, pounding militant bases in the towns of Khan Shaykhun, al-Tamanah, Hass, Madaya, Kafrsajna, Rakaya Sijneh, and Hazarin as well as Hish.
By Thursday, the ground forces had gained control of five villages to the northwest of Khan Shaykhun.
As the advances continued, Syrian air defense intercepted and destroyed a missile coming from northern Lebanon over the western-central governorate of Hama, state media said.
Quoting an unnamed military source, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported that the “hostile” missile was shot down at 23:06 local time (20:06 GMT) on Thursday over the city of Masyaf before reaching its designated target.
The Israeli regime has acknowledged repeatedly striking positions inside Syria in recent years, and some of such attacks have been carried out from Lebanese airspace.
Such aggressive moves are usually viewed as attempts to prop up terrorist groups suffering defeats at the hands of Syrian government forces.