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On August 16, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) shelled several positions of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the towns of al-Lataminah, Khuwayn and Saraqib in southern Idlib and northern Hama, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
The Syrian state-run news agency said that two militants named “Muhanad Rudwan al-Saleh” and “Abd al-Latif Khalid al-Qadur” were killed as a result of the shelling. Several HTS vehicles armed with machineguns were also destroyed.
The SAA has been shelling the positions of HTS, the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) and Jaysh al-Izza in the northern Hama countryside and the southern Idlib countryside for more than a week now.
Syrian pro-government activists believe that this shelling is aimed at undermining the defense of militants in northern Hama and southern Idlib ahead of a large-scale military operation. The operation, which will be led by the SAA, will be launched within few weeks, according to Syrian activists.
