Over the past two days, Russian and Syrian aircraft have inflicted massive attacks on the positions of Islamist militants west of the city of Maarat al-Numan.
The most active hostilities in the Greater Idlib region (Idlib and Hama provinces, parts of Aleppo and Latakia provinces) over the past two days took place in the southern sector of the front in northwestern Syria.
The positions of militants of the Islamist alliance “Khayyat Tahrir al-Sham” and the Turkish “National Liberation Front” (NFO) in the areas of Kafr-Nebel, Al-Fatira, Marzayt, Al-Bara, Ahsam, Kensafra, Al-Mastum , Kafr Aved, Sufan, Marat Hamra and several other villages in the Jebel Zawiya region. At the same time, army artillery attacked Al-Mastum, Kafr Nebel, Khas, Jbala in the immediate vicinity of the front line.
Such activity may mean preparing the next phase of the offensive of the Syrian army, but now in the southern sector of Idlib. Over the past few weeks, Bashar al-Assad’s forces have been conducting successful operations in the east of Idlib, near the administrative border with the neighboring province of Aleppo, ensuring the transfer of complete control of the M-5 Aleppo-Damascus strategic highway.