DAMASCUS, Aug 27 (NNN-SANA) – Eleven Syrian military personnel were killed, and 20 others were injured yesterday, in a rebel attack in the country’s north-western province of Idlib, a war monitor reported.
The attackers carried out an assault and detonated explosive devices, concealed in tunnels beneath the Syrian army positions, in the southern countryside of Idlib, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The observatory said, the attackers are from factions including the Ansar al-Tawhid group and the Turkestan Islamic Movement, both affiliates of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group.
Tension has been brewing between the HTS and the Syrian army, with both sides exchanging fire in northern Syria.
A day earlier, seven HTS members were killed by the army in the western countryside of Aleppo in northern Syria, according to the observatory.
Last Monday, Syrian forces intercepted and shot down three weaponised drones, dispatched by the HTS in the north-western provinces of Idlib and Hama.
On the same day, Russian airstrikes conducted in the Idlib region killed eight HTS militants, according to the observatory.
HTS, previously known as the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, has established control over a large swathe of Idlib.
