Two months of the clashes of Hama and Idlib countryside…the regime forces impose their control over about 40 villages and areas…more than 2500 raids…about 350 members and fighters were killed

The military operations in the north-eastern countryside of Hama and the south-eastern countryside of Idlib, completed their second consecutive month, since the start of the aerial and land preparation and the clashes between Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamic Party of Turkestan and the rebel and Islamic factions against the regime forces backed by armed militiamen loyal to them of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities, through which the regime forces and their allies managed to impose their full control over the villages and the areas of al-Hawiyyah, Al-Rweideh, al-Syriatel Hill, Al-Shatib, Al-Zafriyyah, Al-Blil, Um Khazim, Um Trikiyyeh, Rajm al-Ahmar, Al-Shahatiyyah, Al-Mestriha, Jub Abyad, Rasm Abu Mayyal, Rasm Al-Sawwan, Rasm Al-Sawi, Rasm Al-Ahmar, Rasm Al-Tina, Abu Laffah, Al-Mshirfah, Jwi’eid, Hasrat, Khirbat Al-Rahjan, Hasnawi, Mweileh Shamali, Qasr Ali , Qasr Shawi, Tal Mahsar, Al-Rabiaa, Duma, Rabda, Hazem, Arafa, Mrijeb al-Jamlan, Al-Khefyeh, Sham Al Hawa, Al Rahraha, Sarha, Abu Al-Gher, Hasnawi and Baghidid.

The regime forces are seeking through these violent clashes to increase their scope of control and minimize the factions’ scope of control and to go deep into Idlib countryside and recover the birthplace of the regime’s Minister of Defense Fahd Jassem al-Freij, which was out of the control of the regime forces in the mid of July 2014, in which Al-Nusra Front (Al Qaeda in the Levant) took the control of it then, they are also seeking to recover the important are of Abu Dali, while intensive shelling is carried out daily by shells, missiles, warplanes and helicopter, in which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored that the warplanes and helicopters carried out more than 2500 raids, which targeted the clash areas and the factions and Tahrir Al-Sham-held areas, resulting in the fall of human losses, and the bombardment was accompanied by shelling by missiles believed to be ground-to-ground, and shelling by artillery, mortar and tanks shells on Hama and Idlib countryside.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored during the past 10 days, the arrival of groups of tens of members consecutively to the northeastern countryside of Hama and the countryside of Idlib, in preparation for violent battles against Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham and the rebel and Islamic factions, where the leadership of this operation was assigned to Brigadier in the regime forces Suhail Al-Hassan, known as the “Tiger”, who led wide-scale military operation in 2017, began early this year, in which they managed to control tens of square kilometers and reduced the areas controlled by ISIS, and he also led military campaign  in several areas in Syria, and these preparations by the regime forces and the reinforcement coincided with military reinforcement by the rebel and Islamic factions and Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham, coming from the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the death of hundreds of who were killed in these clashes in which it rose to 197 the number of the fighters of Tahrir Al-Sham, the Turkistan Islamic Movement and the Islamic and rebel factions, who were killed since the regime forces started on the 22nd of October 2017, their heavy shelling on areas in the north eastern countryside of Hama, which was followed by violent attack to achieve advancement in the area, until today the 22nd of December 2017, and 146 members at least of the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them were killed in the same clashes, while tens of the members in the ranks of the both parties were injured with varying degrees of severity, while the advancement and the intensive raids during the past few days and weeks, were accompanied by wide displacement of civilians, in which intersected sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the clash areas between the both parties and the nearby areas, witnessed large displacement of most of the citizens of these areas, in which part of them headed to Idlib, and the other stayed outdoors in Hama, as the violent clashes in this countryside raised the number of the displaced people to reach about 60 thousand displaced civilians, who fled the areas close to the clash area towards other areas in the southern and south-eastern countryside of Idlib, and towards other areas in the northern countryside of Hama, while dozens of civilians were killed and injured in this artillery, missile and aerial shelling.