Illustrative image
On February 23, radical militants launched dozens of rockets and mortars at residential areas in the towns of Safsafiyah and Mahardah along with a nearby power station in the northern Hama countryside.
Local sources said that a crew from the American CBS TV and several British journalists were visiting Mahardah when the rocket attack occurred. However, nobody was injured.
According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) responded to these new violations of the Russian-Turkish devitalized zone agreement by targeting and destroying two military vehicles belonging to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the town of Maarkaba.
A day earlier, the northern Hama countryside witnessed similar violations. The army responded by shelling several HTS positions deep inside the Idlib zone and assassinating a field commander of Jaysh al-Izza.
Radical groups, such as HTS and Jaysh al-Izza, are not allowed to have any presence within the demilitarized zone around Idlib. However, Turkey is yet to reinforce this condition. This is threatening the integrity of the entire agreement.
