Syria

28 Feb 2020; MEMO: Israel is reported to have assassinated a senior Hezbollah leader yesterday near the village of Hader, near Quneitra, in the Syrian Golan Heights.

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported that a “civilian” was killed in an Israeli drone strike on his car in Quneitra, southern Syria.

However, opposition media reported that the target was Hezbollah leader, Emad Al-Tawil, the group’s foreign operations chief.

DAMASCUS, Feb 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least three Syrian soldiers were wounded by Israeli helicopter fire near the annexed Golan Heights late Thursday, the official SANA agency reported.

“Israeli helicopters launched missiles above the occupied Golan Heights, hitting (Syrian) army positions at Kahtaniyeh, Al-Horiyyat and the liberated town of Quneitra, leaving three wounded among the troops,” SANA said.

It comes after a Syrian linked to the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah was killed in a cross-border Israeli drone strike earlier Thursday, a war monitor said.

TASS, February 27: Syrian troops have liberated Kafr Weid, a city located in the south of the Idlib Governorate, SANA news agency reported.

Assad’s forces have regained control over another 15 settlements in its outskirts over the past day, defeating terrorists of the Jabhat al-Nusra group (outlawed in Russia). The Syrian forces have launched a mop-up operation in the residential quarters and a mine clearance effort in the streets.

27 February 2020; AFP: Syrian rebels on Thursday reentered a key northwestern town they had lost earlier this month, reversing one of the main gains of the government's devastating offensive in the region.

The counteroffensive could be short-lived however and Russian-backed Syrian troops continued to chip away at other parts of the rebel bastion, ignoring growing appeals for a ceasefire.

ALEPPO, February 25. /TASS/: Syrian army sappers who demine the settlement of Zahraa, recently liberated from terrorists, advance no more than 300 meters per day due to the sheer density of various explosive devices, including foreign-made ones, planted across the settlement. The military engineers say clearance of roads is a priority task at this moment.

DAMASCUS, Feb 25 (NNN-Xinhua) — Turkish forces and Turkey-backed rebels on Monday managed to capture a town in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, after two previous failed attempts, a war monitor reported.

They captured the town of Nairab in the eastern Idlib countryside after eight hours of intense fighting and heavy shelling, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A total of nine Syrian soldiers were killed by the Turkish shelling, the Britain-based watchdog said, adding the Syrian forces fired missiles at the town later.

DAMASCUS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish forces and Turkey-backed rebels on Monday managed to capture a town in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, after two previous failed attempts, a war monitor reported.

The Turkey-backed rebels and Turkish forces captured the town of Nairab in the eastern Idlib countryside after eight hours of intense fighting and heavy shelling, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

25 Feb 2020; MEMO: The Syrian news agency, SANA, claimed on Sunday that the Turkish army had arrested dozens of rebels as they fled from the fighting in Idlib and headed for Turkey. The arrests were made in the area of Ras Al-Ein to the north west of Al-Hasaka.

SANA is believed to be the only media outlet which reported the news. It explained that the Turks closed the border ahead of the rebels before arresting them.

25 Feb 2020; MEMO: Syrian regime’s leadership has threatened to respond to any breach on the Syrian airspace, local media reported yesterday.

“The Syrian forces would respond to any infiltration of the country’s airspace and would treat it as external military aggression,” official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted a military source as saying.

DAMASCUS, Feb 24 (NNN-SANA) – The Syrian air defences intercepted a number of Israeli missiles, over the capital Damascus, on Sunday night (last night), state TV reported.

Several explosions were heard reverberating across the capital, in what appeared to be a fresh Israeli missile attack, targeting military sites in Syria.

Most of the missiles were intercepted before reaching their targets, said the official report. It added, the missiles were fired from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.