(Zaman Al Wasl)- Six troops of the Syrian regime’s elite forces were killed in a rocket attack by rebels in coastal Latakia province as Damascus seeks to take strategic Kabana hilltops, military sources said Friday.
Nine more troops were wounded in the attack on the bastions of the 4th Armoured Division near Kabana hilltops.
The strategic mountainous area has been under major attack by regime forces over the past few weeks as regime forces press to uproot the Turkish-backed rebels from their last stronghold in the coastal region.
.So far, rebels have killed at least 70 troops, including Hezbollah militants.
Also, five troops were killed in Mount Turkmen and west of Hama province by the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front, according to sources.
Rebels and jihadists have killed more than 130,000 pro-regime forces since the armed conflict erupted eight years ago with the brutal repression of protests against Bashar al-Assad, according to local monitoring groups.
In Idlib province, four people, including a child boy, were killed Friday in Russian airstrikes on the villages of al-Fatira and Mare’ian in the southern countryside, according to the White Helmets.
Syria’s northwest corner, including the Idlib region, is the last major chunk of territory still in rebel hands after more than eight years of war.
In the eastern countryside of Idlib, rebels halted Thursday an advance by regime forces and allied Iranian militias, killing 15 militants, military sources told Zaman al-Wasl.
In a relevant development, the Syrian National Army on Thursday has destroyed an Iranian site including weapons depot south of Aleppo, killing 4 militants.
The Turkish-backed forces launched a Grad missile attack on the site near the town of al-Hadher in the southern countryside of Aleppo.
Naji Mustafa, spokesman for the SNA, said the attack came in retaliation to the massacre of al-Kah camp in Idlib province that left 16 displaced persons killed on Wednesday.
The Assad forces launched a blistering military campaign against Idlib in April, killing around 1,000 civilians and displacing more than 400,000 people from their homes.
A ceasefire announced by Russia has largely held since late August, although dozens of civilians have been killed in sporadic bombardment since then.
Last month, Assad said Idlib was standing in the way of an end to the civil war that has ravaged his country through most of the current decade.
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 560,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighbouring countries.
Zaman Al Wasl
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