The Syrian army has reportedly purged the entirety of the northern city of Hama’s surroundings of terrorist presence.
Syria media sources said on Wednesday that, “There are no [more] terrorists in the area.”
According to the sources, the army also extended its control over the town of Tuba, northeast of Hama, after violent clashes with Takfiri terrorists belonging to the so-called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Earlier, a Syrian source reported that “Syrian Arab Army units secured all the points they had advanced to in the northeastern countryside of Hama, at a distance of more than 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the city.”
According to Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network, the city has fallen back under the control of the Syrian army and is witnessing “relative calm.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the Syrian Air Force and its Russian allies carried out their heaviest strikes against camps and concentrations belonging to foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists since their resurgence in Syria’s northern areas.
The joint retaliation saw the forces targeting armoured vehicles belonging to the terrorists, who were trying to escape towards the town of Morek in the northern countryside of Hama.
Syrian helicopters also struck concentrations of HTS terrorists in Hama’s northern suburbs.
‘1,600-plus terrorists killed in a week’
According to field sources, more than 1,600 terrorists have been killed as a result of the Syrian army’s operations over the past week.
The sources identified the fatalities as terrorists belonging to the HTS and other outfits.
Earlier this week, members of the HTS were reported to have overrun many government-controlled areas and killed dozens of soldiers in northern Syria.
The Syrian military and its allied Russian forces then began extensive counterterrorism operations, prompting terrorist outfits and their Western supporters to launch a full-scale media campaign aimed at tarnishing the Syrian forces’ successful anti-terror drive.
The campaign has been dismissed by Damascus as a mere “media war.”
