An army of “moderate” decapitators, in violating a ceasefire agreement with Russia, launched an attack with tanks and artillery on the Syrian Government north of Hama in the de-escalation zone, in an attempt to halt the Syrian Army’s successful advance, Russian news agency TASS reported.
A key part of the plan was to capture Russian soldiers, which they had hoped would have been a major embarrassment for Russia. Rudskoi said gunmen of Jabhat al-Nusra, designated as a terror group in Russia, launched a large-scale offensive against Syrian troops initiated by American intelligence services to stop a successful advance of government troops east of Deir Ezzor, but was repelled.
Rudskoi said one of the main goals of the militants’ actions was their attempt to capture units of the Russian military police, amounting to the 29 service personnel. The Russian military police unit had been deployed at an observation post to control the situation in the de-escalation zone.
The 29 Russians were trapped by anti-Assad militants during a heavy fire-fight, but it has been reported that a Russian Special Operations unit, Spetsnaz, composed of some Chechens, broke the siege.
Russian Sukhoi jets then conducted pinpoint strikes against the rebels, providing cover for the trapped soldiers to escape. Three operators were injured, but Russia suffered no casualties.
“The operation to destroy the terrorists will be continued,” Rudskoi told the media.
Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the events. “This [assessment of events by the Kremlin] cannot differ from what was stated by the Defense Ministry. That’s why all what was said does not need any more comments,” Peskov said.
“Despite the agreements signed on 15th November in Astana, Jabhat Al-Nusra militants joined by groups unwilling to comply with the terms of the ceasefire, at 8.00am [local time, 06:00am GMT] on September 19 launched a large-scale offensive on the positions of government troops to the north and northeast of Hama in the Idlib de-escalation zone,” Rudskoi explained.
“In these extreme conditions the commander of the Russian forces in Syria, General-Colonel Surovkin, formed a rescue group. It was composed of units of special operations forces, military police, joined by the military-natives of the North Caucasus, and the Syrian Special Forces.”
The commander of Russia’s force in Syria formed the rescue group to break the militant encirclement near Idlib.
The squad, inflicting heavy losses on the attackers, was headed by Major General Victor Shuliak. “Air and artillery strikes destroyed 187 objects, about 850 terrorists, 11 tanks, four armoured vehicles, 46 pickups, five mortars, 20 trucks and 38 weapons warehouses were destroyed in a 24-hours period.”
A second Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Major General Igor Konashnekov said that representatives of the US central command in Qatar were promptly informed about an immediate response should the Syrian Army be under fire of their allies of the so-called “Syrian Democratic Forces”, again.
During the past week, Syrian Army’s positions were attacked by the Syrian Democratic Forces militants at least twice, he said.
Konashenkov noted that the US-led international “anti-ISIS” coalition suddenly shifted its activities towards the province of Deir Ezzor, temporarily abandoning Raqqah, Syria’s main ISIS stronghold, following the huge advances by the Syrian Army.
The Russian general noted that despite the sudden influx of SDF militants into the north of Deir Ezzor, there have been no clashes recorded between SDF and ISIS for more than a week now.
The Russian general confirmed full control of the province is expected to be assumed during the next week.
