The Syrian army resumed its bombardment in the northwest of the country immediately after announcing a halt to a truce agreement that entered its fourth day, accusing the extremist factions of targeting the airbase of the Russian-held Himmeyem, and announced the occurrence of "casualties" by the fall of rocket-propelled grenades in the vicinity of the base.
Last Thursday, Damascus announced its approval of a truce in Idlib, more than three months after the escalation that has driven more than 400,000 people to flee. And stipulated the continuation of the implementation of a Russian-Turkish agreement provides for the establishment of a demilitarized zone in the Idlib region, which houses three million people, and maintained the Sham Liberation Organization (former Nasra Front) to take control of the matter militarily and administratively.
In a statement published by the official media, the Syrian army leadership accused the Turkish-backed armed terrorist groups of "refusing to abide by the ceasefire and carrying out numerous attacks on civilians in the surrounding safe areas."
"Since the approval of the cease-fire was conditional on Ankara's compliance with any of its obligations under the Sochi agreement, and the failure to do so, the military and the armed forces will resume their combat operations against terrorist organizations, in all their names."
Shortly after the army's leadership statement, Damascus accused the factions of targeting the Hameimim base in Lattakia, west of Idlib, on Sunday, resulting in unspecified deaths and whether civilians or soldiers.
"Terrorist groups have targeted the Hameimim air base with a range of rocket-propelled grenades that landed in the vicinity of the base and caused great human and material losses," the official SANA news agency quoted a military source as saying.
Soon after, warplanes and helicopters began their first raids in southern Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The head of the observatory Rami Abdul Rahman, the first raids targeted the city of Khan Sheikun, which has received the largest share of the bombing since the army began to escalate in the region.
Displaced people who fled their cities and towns to escape the shelling during the past two days were quick to return to their homes to inspect them, and some of them found a pile of rubble.
The Idlib region was covered by an agreement reached by Russia and Turkey in Sochi in September 2018. It stipulated the establishment of a demilitarized zone of 15 to 20 kilometers separating the areas controlled by the army and the factions, and the withdrawal of factions opposed to their heavy and medium weapons and the withdrawal of extremist groups from the area concerned.
Damascus has accused Turkey of supporting the militant factions, but has succeeded in establishing relative calm in the region for several months.
Commenting on Damascus' demand for the continuation of the truce, the withdrawal of extremist groups and the handing over of heavy and medium weapons, the commander-in-chief of the Sham Liberation Organization, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, announced last Saturday that his faction would not withdraw from the demilitarized zone.
This came at a time when the Council of «Syrian Democratic» (denounce) the final statement of the talks Astana 13, which concluded last Friday in the Kazakh capital, Sultan, in the presence of delegations from the Syrian government and the opposition, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon as an observer.
In a statement yesterday, the council accused Turkey of "persuading Astana to take advantage of it and continues to mislead and insist on massacres and the practice of ethnic cleansing against the peoples of the region. The state that threatens the security of the region on a daily basis is not entitled to launch a terrorist charge against the formed forces, A vast estimated millions ».