On Monday morning, the Syrian Arab Army’s 103rd Brigade of the Republican Guard began the 3rd phase of their Latakia offensive, launching a powerful attack along several axes in the Jabal Al-Akrad (Kurdish Mountains) region that borders both Turkey to the north and the Idlib Governorate to the east.
The Syrian Arab Army’s Central Command confirmed the genesis of these new military operations after seizing the strategic village of To’uma from the Islamist rebels of Jabhat Al-Nusra (Syrian Al-Qaeda group) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the Kurdish Mountains yesterday.
According to a military source in Jabal Al-Akrad, the Syrian Arab Army’s 103rd Brigade are currently pressing north from the village of To’uma towards the rebel stronghold of Kinsibba, which is considered the Islamist rebels last line of defenses before the imperative city of Jisr Al-Shughour in the Idlib Governorate.
The battlefield correspondent Eyad Al-Hussein has reported intense artillery strikes this morning, despite the frigid weather in the vast mountains of northern Latakia.
Joining the Syrian Arab Army’s 103rd Brigade during this latest military operation in northeastern Latakia are the following groups: Liwaa Suqour Al-Sahra (Desert Hawks Brigade), the National Defense Forces (NDF), the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), and Muqawama Souri (Syrian Resistance).
The main objective of this phase is to seal the northeastern corner of the Latakia Governorate and build a frontline at the strategic city of Jisr Al-Shughour.