The Syrian military discovered a cave in the vicinity of the recently liberated city of Khan Sheikhun in the province of Idlib, which turned out to be a large base of militants, Brigadier General Abdel Kerim Meyhun told the reporters.
The Syrian military discovered a cave in the vicinity of the recently liberated city of Khan Sheikhun in the province of Idlib, which turned out to be a large base of militants, Brigadier General Abdel Kerim Meyhun told reporters.
As a result of the operation carried out in August, the Syrian military managed to liberate significant territories in the north of the province of Hama and the south of Idlib, held by terrorists in some cases since 2014. The key moment was the liberation of the strategic city of Khan Sheikhun and access to the section of the international highway M5 Damascus – Aleppo.
“Our fighters discovered this cave after the liberation of the southern regions of Idlib province, which happened at the end of August. There was not only a powerful fortification area, but also a lot of various weapons and equipment of the militants: here’s a helmet, uniforms, gas mask, and here is a tape for a heavy machine gun and grenades for an RPG”, – said Meyhun.
According to him, the area of the cave is about ten thousand square meters, there is an extensive system of passages, a command post with a map of the Khan Sheikhun and Murek districts, a field hospital and sleeping rooms were equipped.
“Each of them (moves. – Ed.) Stretches at least 200 meters. It’s impossible to know this figure more accurately without risk to life: when they left, the militants hastily mined everything they had. In one day we were able to undermine only this grotto. There is no further road yet, our sappers have not had time to work there”, – the Syrian general added.
In addition, according to Brigadier General Mayhun, this cave could be used by the representatives of White Helmets, where in the separate “office” under the flag of their organization they edited a video that the Syrian army allegedly used chemical weapons against civilians.
On April 4, 2017, the Syrian opposition announced 80 victims of a chemical attack in the city of Khan Sheikhun, Idlib province and 200 injured. It named the government forces of Syria the culprit of the attack, which in response resolutely rejected the accusations and blamed the militants and their patrons. The Syrian authorities stated that they had never used chemical weapons against civilians and terrorists, and the entire chemical arsenal of the country was taken out of Syria under the control of the OPCW. The United States, without showing evidence of the guilt of the Syrian military and not listening to the call of Russia to conduct a thorough investigation, struck the Syrian military base Shairat on the night of April 7.
State Duma deputy Dmitry Sablin at a meeting with the deputy secretary general of the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (BAAS) Hilal Hilal in Damascus in Augist said that the release of the Syrian Khan Sheikhun is important, as there will be an opportunity to investigate a chemical weapons provocation that became the pretext for the US strike on Syria in 2017 year.