On Sunday morning, the conglomerate of Al-Qaeda affiliates that form “Jaysh Al-Fateh” (Army of Conquest) have launched their second round of indiscriminate attacks on the predominately Shi’i towns of Al-Fou’aa and Kafraya inside the Idlib Governorate after failing to produce any gains during their brutal offensive last week.
Led by the largest forces in Jaysh Al-Fateh – Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham and the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” – the Islamist militants pounded Al-Fou’aa and Kafraya from three different flanks; however, their multitude of rockets and mortar shells launched by these Islamist fighters did little damage to the National Defense Forces’ (NDF) fortifications.
The Islamist forces of Jaysh Al-Fateh claim their battle for Al-Fou’aa and Kafraya is merely a reprisal for the full-scale offensive conducted by the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division and Hezbollah at the resort-city of Al-Zabadani in Syria’s western countryside; this threat has done very little to deter the latter, as they have captured 80 percent of the city.
