The Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” was rather busy on Wednesday, as their armed combatants – alongside Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham and Jund Al-Aqsa – carried out two large scale offensives that targeted the territory under the control of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and National Defense Forces (NDF) in the Idlib and Aleppo Governorates of northern Syria.
With the Aleppo offensive off to a brutal start, Jabhat Al-Nusra and their allies have shifted their focus to the Al-Ghaab Plains in the Idlib and Hama Governorates, where the Syrian Arab Army’s 87 Brigade of the 11th Tank Division and the 45th Artillery Regiment of the 1st Armored Division have captured a number of hills near the strategic town of Al-Qastal.
Around 9:30 P.M. (Damascus Time), the militants from Jabhat Al-Nusra and Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham began their large-scale offensive at Tal Khattab in order to recapture the strategic hill of Tal A’our; this hill is critical to the Islamist fighters because it provided them a centralized location to launch their U.S. manufactured anti-tank TOW missiles at the SAA’s encroaching tanks.
In addition to their assault on Tal Khattab, Jabhat Al-Nusra and Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham attacked the Syrian Arab Army’s positions at Zayzoun, resulting in a series of fierce clashes at the southeastern perimeter of the town before the Syrian Armed Forces were able to repel the swarming enemy combatants.
Firefights are still ongoing between the Syrian Arab Army and Jabhat Al-Nusra at Tal Khattab; however, there has been no reported advancement made by the aforementioned as of yet.
