Syrian troops, Russian jets launch attack in Ghab Plain

Beirut, October 8

Syrian troops and allied militia backed by Russian air strikes attacked rebels in the Ghab Plain in western Syria on Thursday, and the army chief said a major offensive was underway to recapture territory from insurgents.

The rebel advance into the Ghab region nearly two months ago had threatened the coastal region vital to President Bashar al-Assad’s control of western Syria and catalysed Russia’s intervention on his side last week.

Ground forces targeted insurgent-held areas in the Ghab Plain with heavy barrages of surface-to-surface missiles as Russian jets bombed from above, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel fighting there said.

Syrian armed forces “have launched wide-ranging attacks to deal with the terrorist groups, and to liberate the areas which had suffered from the terrorist rule and crimes,” Lt. Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayoub was quoted as saying by state media.

Ayoub did not specify the areas being targeted. He said new fighting groups, including one called the Fourth Assault Corps, had been set up to wage the campaign and the army now held the military initiative.

The Observatory’s head Rami Abdulrahman said an assault launched by the army and its foreign allies on Wednesday in nearby areas of Hama province had so far failed to make significant gains, however.

“At least 13 regime forces were killed... The clashes also killed 11 (rebel) fighters,” he said in a statement, adding that the numbers were expected to rise as more casualties were confirmed.

Around 15 army tanks and armoured vehicles had been destroyed or immobilised by rebel missile strikes, Abdulrahman and an opposition activist on the ground said.

Wednesday’s operation in Hama appeared to be the first major assault coordinated between Syrian troops and militia on the ground, and Russian warplanes and ships firing missiles from the Caspian Sea.

The Ghab Plain, also in Hama, abuts a mountain range that forms the heartland of Assad’s Alawite sect.

Recapturing it from the alliance of rebel groups, including al Qaeda’s Nusra Front which thrust into the area in late July, would help secure Assad’s coastal heartlands and could provide a platform to drive the rebels back from other areas.

A fighter from the Ajnad al-Sham insurgent group who uses the name Abu al-Baraa al-Hamawi told Reuters that Russian jets had been bombing since dawn. It was not the first time the Russians had bombed the area, but this was their most ferocious attack, he said, speaking via an Internet messaging service.

“There is an attempt by the regime to advance but the situation is under our control,” he said.

“God willing we will repeat the massacre of the north Hama countryside as happened yesterday,” Hamawi added, referring to the strikes on the tanks. “We have faced more violent attacks than this in the past.”

Russian air strikes started last week and have mostly focused in areas of western Syria where Assad has sought to shore up his control after losing swathes of the rest of the country to insurgents including the Islamic State group.

Russia says it is fighting Islamic State in Syria. But while the group has been the target of some of its air strikes, it has no foothold in the areas of western Syria targeted in the attacks on Wednesday and Thursday. — Reuters