(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 23 regime troops, including elite forces, were killed late on Saturday in a surprise attack by the armed opposition on the newly-captured town of Jarjanaz, pro-regime news feeds said.
The attack followed heavy rocket fire on regime forces and allied Shiite militias who set outposts a few miles from the Maaret al-Numan town.
The slain fighters were operating in the Republican Guard and in Division 25, a special mission force led by Brig. Gen. Suheil al-Hassan, a Russian-backed Syrian officer who took credit for some of the biggest regime victories in the eight-year conflict.
At least 90 Syrian regime forces and allied militants have been killed by rebels in two week ago, the spokeswoman of Russia’s Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said Thursday.
The Russian-backed offensive has uprooted a quarter million people of their homes and killed 100 people since mid-December.
Meanwhile, the regime’s Air Force has been mobilizing heavy weapons and attack helicopters in Hama military airbase and in the eastern region of Idlib province.
The military source said that Hama Military Airport recently received ten L-39 aircrafts and 8 attack helicopters M-8, M-17, Mi-25, "Ababil - 3D" reconnaissance aircraft, which appear for the first time in satellite images, in addition to two planes. Mig-23.
New satellite images obtained by Zaman Al-Wasl showed the size of the Assad regime's air force in Hama military Airbase, Stamou Airport and the Mujanzarat School.
More than 235,000 people have fled the Idlib region over the past two weeks, the UN said Friday.
The mass displacement between 12 and 25 December has left the violence-plagued Maaret al-Numan region in southern Idlib "almost empty," the UN said in a statement.
Since mid-December, Russian-backed regime forces have pressed with an assault on jihadists in southern Idlib, despite an August ceasefire deal and calls for a de-escalation from Turkey, France and the United Nations.
The increased airstrikes came as Russian-backed regime forces advance on the ground.
They have since December 19 seized dozens of towns and villages from the jihadist amid clashes that have killed hundreds on both sides.
The bombardment and clashes have amplified displacement from Maaret al-Numan and the nearby town Saraqeb in southern Idlib region, the UN said.
Idlib is dominated by the country's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, whose chief this week urged jihadists and allied rebels to head to the frontlines and battle "the Russian occupiers" and the regime.
The region hosts some three million people, including many displaced by years of violence in other parts of Syria.
The Damascus regime, which now controls 70 percent of Syria, has repeatedly vowed to take back the area.
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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