Following a rough 48 hour battle inside the northern countryside of the Al-Ghaab Plains, the Syrian Arab Army’s 87th Brigade of the 11th Tank Division – in coordination with the 45th Regiment of the 1st Division, the National Defense Forces (NDF), and Qawat Al-Nimr (Tiger Forces) – launched a counter-assault at the strategically located towns of Qarqour and Al-Misheek, capturing several points from the conglomerate of Al-Qaeda affiliated militias.
The Syrian Armed Forces were able to bait the two largest factions in Jaysh Al-Fateh – Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham and the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” – to push too far into the Al-Ghaab Plains, resulting in the aforementioned Islamist militant groups being overstretched on the Qarqour and Al-Misheek fronts.
As a result of Jaysh Al-Fateh’s overstretched fighters, the Syrian Armed Forces were able to take advantage of this apparent folly in order to recapture the town of Al-Misheek; which later paved the way for them to reenter Qarqour and recapture most of the town after fierce clashes with Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, Jund Al-Aqsa, and Ajnad Al-Sham.
To the west of Qarqour, the Syrian Armed Forces are currently in the process of pushing out Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham and Jabaht Al-Nusra from the villages of Al-Buhsa, Safsaafa, and Fawru, as they attempt to recapture their lost territory from these aforementioned Islamist factions.