Illustrative image
On April 11 morning, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) shelled militants’ positions in the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib with dozens of rockets.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), intense rocket strikes targeted the town of al-Bara in the southern Idlib countryside as well as the Hdadah hilltop in the northern countryside of Lattakia.
“There is no information about any causalities [as a result of the shelling],” the monitoring group said in its report.
Opposition sources called the shelling was a violation of the ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey on March 5. However, the SAA was likely responding to recent violations by radical militants hiding in Greater Idlib.
Militants fighting for al-Qaeda-affiliated groups attacked SAA positions and troops with sniper rifles, mortars and even anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) on several occasions during the last few weeks.
While the March 5 agreement is holding up for the most part, it could collapse soon. Turkey, which promised to reopen the Lattakia-Aleppo highway known as the M4 and neutralize radicals in the area, is yet to fulfill its commitments.
