Syrian troops and allied militia backed by a fresh wave of Russian air strikes and cruise missiles fired from warships attacked rebel forces yesterday as the government extended a major offensive to recapture territory in the west of the country.
Rebel advances in western Syria earlier this year had threatened the coastal region vital to President Bashar al-Assad’s control of the area and prompted Russia’s intervention on their ally’s side last week.
In a further show of force, the Russian Defence Ministry said missiles fired from its ships in the Caspian Sea hit weapons factories, arms dumps, command centres and training camps. The Russian Defence Ministry said its air force hit a number of training sites, overnight in the provinces of Homs, Hama and Raqqa, Interfax news agency reported.
Ground forces loyal to the Syrian government targeted insurgents in the Ghab Plain area in the west of the country, with heavy barrages of surface-to-surface missiles as Russian warplanes bombed from above, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel fighting there.
It said rebels had shot down a helicopter in Hama province in western Syria. It was unclear if it was Syrian or Russian.
Syria said it had set in train a major military operation in a war that began more than four years ago as an attempt to unseat Mr al-Assad through street protests and has now killed 250,000 people, sent millions into exile as refugees, and drawn in armed forces from world and regional powers.
Rebels shoot down helicopter in Hama province
Mr al-Assad’s 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,” Syria’s army Chief of Staff, Lt Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayoub, was quoted as saying by state media.
Lt Gen. Ayoub did not say which areas were being targeted. He said new fighting units, including one called the Fourth Assault Corps, had been set up 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, and the numbers were expected to rise. Around 15 army tanks and armoured vehicles had been destroyed or immobilised by rebel missile strikes, Mr 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 naval ships.