Illustrative image
In a new violation of the Russian-Turkish deconfliction agreement, militants of the “Wa Harid al-Muminin” operations room targeted positions and fortifications of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the areas of al-Harishah and Mazra’at Waridah in the southwestern Aleppo countryside with an armed drone on November 16.
Later, the radical militants targeted the SAA’s positions in the same area with RG-6 grenade launchers. Wa Harid al-Muminin claimed that one Syrian soldier was killed and six others were injured as a result of the shelling.
Wa Harid al-Muminin is a coalition of several al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, which are based in the opposition-held area in northwestern Syria. The operations room was formed in mid-October with an open aim to sabotage the deconfliction agreement.
Wa Harid al-Muminin’s militants attacked positions of the SAA in the northern Lattakia countryside at the early hours of November 16. While the operations room claimed that eighteen SAA personnel were killed in the attack, Syrian opposition sources said that the number of casualties is much lower.
These violations prove that Turkey has failed to reinforce the deconfliction agreement. Even al-Qaeda-affiliated groups are still operating freely within the opposition-held parts of Aleppo, Idlib, Hama and Lattakia.
