Rebel Militants Repelled by Syrian Army, Russian Jets in Latakia Province

Supported by Russian air strikes, the Syrian Army has reportedly managed to regain control of a spate of strategic areas in the western province of Latakia.

With the help of Russian air strikes, the Syrian Army and the country’s National Defense Forces (NDF) won back an array of strategic areas in western Syria’s Latakia province, according to the Iranian news agency FARS.

Dozens of militants were killed and many more wounded after the Syrian troops launched an offensive on terrorists based in the mountainous regions of Latakia province, where the army took control of Tal Kherba, Al Juba and Height 1023, among other areas.

“The Syrian army and the NDF continued to advance against the terrorist groups north of Lattakia and took back Heights 292, 296 and 387. The pro-government forces also won back the Heights 465, 342 and 489 near the newly-liberated village of al-Sarraf,” FARS quoted army sources as saying.

According to the sources, the Syrian forces also captured Daghdaghan Farm, believed to be one of the main strongholds of the militant groups in Latakia.

Earlier this week, the Syrian Army and the NDF staged large-scale offensives on the militant groups in Lattakia, winning back several strategic villages and heights.

In particular, the army took full control of Rweiset Abu Ghannam, Rweiset al-Sheikh Salman, Mount al-Hara and Mount Bait Fares, where scores of rebel Islamist extremists were killed or wounded, the sources said.

The Russian air campaign in Syria was launched on September 30, 2015, when more than fifty Russian warplanes, including Su-24M, Su-25 and Su-34 jets, commenced precision airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria at the behest of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Earlier that day, the Russian upper house of parliament unanimously supported the request of President Vladimir Putin to deploy units of the Russian Aerospace Forces abroad. Syrian Ambassador to Russia Riad Haddad, for his part, confirmed that Syrian Army strikes, supported by the Russian Aerospace Forces, were being carried out against armed terrorist organizations, rather than political opposition factions or civilians.