On Wednesday morning, the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” – in coordination with Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham – launched a fierce assault on the besieged Abu Al-Dhuhour Military Airport in the eastern part of the Idlib Governorate, where they attempted to infiltrate past the Syrian Arab Army’s frontline defenses at the southern and western perimeters of the beleaguered base.
However, the Jabhat Al-Nusra attack was quelled before it could ever get going, as the Syrian Armed Forces destroyed two armored vehicles that were en route to their defensive barriers at the village of Tal Salmo; these two armored vehicles were believed to be Jabhat Al-Nusra suicide bombers that were going detonate the explosives in their trucks in order to destroy the village’s fortifications.
In addition to their attack on the southern flank of the Abu Al-Dhuhour Military Airport, the militants from Jabhat Al-Nusra and Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham targeted the western perimeter of the base, attacking from their positions at the nearby village of Abu Al-Dhuhour.
Following the fierce clashes that lasted over four hours at the Abu Al-Dhuhour Military Airport’s western perimeter, Jabhat Al-Nusra and Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham withdrew their combatants and retreated west towards the village of Abu Al-Dhuhour, where the Syrian Arab Air Force (SAAF) began to target after militant attack.
According to a military source from the Al-Daher Hawks Brigade at the Abu Al-Dhuhour Military Airport, the Syrian Armed Forces are in full control of the base and its surroundings – the militant groups were unable to progress into the airport and they sustained 14 casualties as a result of their failed assault on Wednesday.