Russian Su-34 over Idlib, Illustrative Image
On June 3, warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Force carried out a series of airstrikes on militants positions in the northern Lattakia countryside, according to the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-linked news network Iba’a.
A day earlier, the al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group Horas al-Din attacked a position of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the area of Ard al-Wata in the northern Lattakia countryside. The group claimed that its fighters had killed several soldiers of SAA and captured loads of weapons.
However, a military source told SouthFront that the SAA killed most of Horas al-Din fighters who participated in the attack on Ard al-Wata and revealed that only two soldiers of the SAA were killed during the attack.
Militants have stepped up their attacks against the SAA in the northern Lattakia countryside after the establishment of the Turkish observation post there last month. On May 31, the Turkish-backed Second Coastal Division of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) targeted two groups of the SAA in northern Lattakia with ATGMs.
Local observers believe that Russia will intensify its aerial operations against militants in the northern Lattakia countryside if they continue to violate the de-escalation agreement there.
