ARMED terrorist groups, positioned on the western outskirts of Syria’s Aleppo province, have intensified their crimes and attacks on safe and densely populated neighbourhoods in Aleppo City by shelling them with rockets and explosive shells.
And as tens of civilians have been martyred many more were injured – mostly women and children, a military source has affirmed.
The source added that ‘terrorist organisations have also attacked the humanitarian corridors which have been opened for the exit of civilians from the areas into which the terrorists spread, in an attempt both to prevent citizens from exiting and to continue to use them as human shields.’
The source continued that the ‘Army and Armed Forces General Command affirms that it will exert all possible efforts to save the civilians and to evacuate them from the areas where terrorists are positioned, and it asserts that what it is doing, in terms of military operations and targeting terrorists’ positions, comes within the framework of responding to the repeated attacks launched by terrorists against civilians.’
Terrorist groups take the western outskirts of Aleppo city as a basis for launching attacks against residential neighbourhoods in the city and the safe surrounding villages and towns, claiming the lives of dozens of civilians and injuring others in addition to causing material damage to houses and public and private property.
Meanwhile, civilians continue to leave the terrorist-held territory in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib in order to get to government-controlled areas, Maj. Gen. Yuri Borenkov, the commander of the Russian centre for Syrian reconciliation, said at a briefing on Wednesday.
‘Civilians continue to leave the territory controlled by armed groups in the Idlib de-escalation zone to areas controlled by Syrian government forces. Abu Adh Dhuhur checkpoint in the Idlib province, Al-Hadher in the Aleppo province and Hobait in the Hama province started to function on January 13, 2020, at 12:00 local time,’ he said.
The Russian centre for Syrian reconciliation called on the militants to stop provocations, engage in peaceful conflict-resolution and not prevent refugees from leaving via checkpoints.
- Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister Fayssal Mikdad, on Thursday, discussed with UN Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security Gilles Michaud the issues related to the work of the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) and the office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Syria.
During the meeting, Mikdad pointed out the importance of the work of the Department in Syria, asserting the need for full cooperation with the Syrian governmental bodies in a way that guarantees the safety of the UN staff in Syria.
Mikdad reiterated that the Department necessarily commits to the principle of transparency in its work and abides by the principles and goals on which the UN was founded according to its charter.
For his part, Michaud expressed the Department’s adherence to constructive cooperation with the government of the Syrian Arab Republic regarding the security issues related to the work of the UN organisations in the country, expressing appreciation over the provisions by the Syrian State for the work of the Department, and calling on it to continue supporting his team in Damascus.
He pointed out that the UN interest in the work of the Department of Safety and Security emerges from the risks to which the UN staff might be exposed in different countries across the world.
- The Syrian Arab Army units on Wednesday foiled an attack by the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organisation and other affiliated terrorist groups on military posts in Idlib southeastern countryside, and drove them from the villages of Tal Khatra, Abu Jarif and Kherbet Dawoud.
A SANA reporter quoted field sources as saying that the terrorists of Jabhat al-Nusra and the Turkistani Party launched attacks against army posts, asserting that the army thwarted the terrorists’ attacks and targeted convoys of their vehicles, inflicting heavy losses upon them in personnel and equipment.
The reporter pointed out that army units carried out a military operation in response to the terrorist attack, crushing terrorists from the above-named villages.
- With official and popular participation, a national event was held on Wednesday in Ain Al-Tineh site, opposite the town of Majdal Shams in the occupied Syrian Golan, on the occasion of the liberation of Dean of the Syrian Prisoners, the Arab freedom fighter Sudqi Suleiman al-Maqt and prisoner Amal Fawzi Abu Saleh from the prisons of the Israeli occupation.
Participants in the event, held by the Governorate of Quneitra in cooperation with the Revolutionary Youth Union and popular figures, emphasised that the liberation of the heroic prisoners from the occupation’s prisons is a victory for Syria and for the will to stand against Zionist arrogance, especially in that it coincides with the victories of the Syrian Arab Army in its battles against terrorism.
The participants affirmed their determination to complete the battle until the liberation of the entire occupied Syrian Golan.
- A new batch of displaced Syrians on Wednesday returned home, coming from al-Azraq camp in Jordan via the Nassib Jaber border crossing.
A SANA reporter said that a number of families, mostly children, returned home coming from al-Azraq Camp via Nassib Jaber border crossing, and that then they were transported to their permanent residence areas which had been liberated by the Syrian Arab Army from terrorism.
Colonel Mazen Ghandour, Chief of Nassib Immigration Crossing Centre, said that the number of all people who returned to Syria through Nassib crossing in Daraa since mid-October, 2018 till now, has reached up to 74,400 persons.
- Two civilians were martyred in a landmine blast left behind by terrorists in Sweida, in northeastern countryside.
A source at Sweida Police Command told a SANA reporter that a landmine left behind by terrorists went off, causing the martyrdom of two civilians to the east of Douma village in Sweida, northeastern countryside.
- Defence Minister Gen. Ali Ayyoub presented the Order of the Hero of the Syrian Arab Republic to Iranian Defence Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami, awarded by President Bashar al-Assad to Martyr Lt. General Qassem Soleimani.
During a bilateral meeting with Hatami in Tehran, Ayyoub hailed the great sacrifices of Lt. General Qassem Soleimani and his role in standing by the side of the Syrian people in combating terrorism, indicating that his name will remain deep in their minds forever.
Hatami, for his part, expressed thanks and appreciation for the sympathy with the Iranian government and people over the martyrdom of Soleimani, expressed by senior Syrian officials.
He affirmed that the resistance will continue, and that without the sacrifices of the heroes of the resistance front, including the Syrian armed forces, the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist organisation would have controlled wide areas in the region.
Hatami reaffirmed that Iran stands by Syria in the reconstruction stage, and that it has stood by its side in the stage of war against terrorism.
The meeting was attended by Syria’s Ambassador in Tehran Dr. Adnan Mahmoud.