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On June 8, radical militants launched two 107mm rockets at the civilian areas in the besieged towns of al-Fu’ah and Kafriya in the eastern Idlib countryside, according to Syrian opposition sources. The militants also reportedly targeted the civilians inside the two towns with heavy machineguns and sniper rifles.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that two civilians were injured in the militants’ shelling. Moreover, a fighter of the local Nation Defense Forces (NDF) was killed by the militants, according to local sources in the two towns.
The militants’ attacks on al-Fu’ah and Kafriya are a clear violation of the de-escalation zone in the northern governorate of Idlib. Due to this, the Russian Aerospace Force is expected to respond with airstrikes on militant positions in the upcoming hours.
Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya have been besieged by a coalition consisting of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS; the former branch of al-Qaeda in Syria) and several Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups since March of 2015. Since then, the militants conducted dozens of attacks on the two towns and killed more than 90 civilians there.
