Yesterday, Syrian Army forces entered the city of Maarat al-Numan, the second largest city of Idlib governorate, in northwestern Syria, amid violent clashes and shelling, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The city has become completely encircled, and the Syrian army has begun its operation to storm it from the western side," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the observatory, told AFP, noting that clashes, accompanied by Russian-Syrian air strikes, took place in the western part of Maarat al-Numan, Which is almost empty of the population.
For its part, the Turkish Defense Ministry said yesterday that it would respond in the strongest possible way to any attack by the Syrian army forces on its observation posts in Idlib.
In addition, the Syrian News Agency, SANA, reported that units of the Syrian army operating in Aleppo carried out intensive and focused strikes on armed groupings and fortifications in their areas of deployment west and southwest of Aleppo.
The agency stated that the army carried out artillery fire with artillery and rockets, during which it destroyed fortifications and ammunition stores.