Syrian Regime Retakes Sahl Al-Ghab Area: Opposition

Syrian regime forces this week managed to retake the Sahl al-Ghab area from the Jeysh al-Fatah – an umbrella group of opposition factions – in Syria's Hama province, opposition sources said Sunday.



"Jeysh al-Fatah factions withdrew from Tal Aawar, the Zeyzoun thermal-power station and the town of Al-Ziyadiya following fierce attacks by Syrian regime forces supported by airstrikes," Abu Ahmed Resten, a Jeysh al-Fatah commander, told Anadolu Agency.



Resten said that around 15 of the group's fighters were killed by what he described as "intense airstrikes" carried out by the Syrian air force.



Syrian opposition factions, including the Nusra Front, under the joint command of Jaysh al-Fatah, had seized control of the city of Idlib early last year.



In a related development, factions of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) attacked four regime checkpoints in the northern outskirts of Hama, according to an FSA source.



The source told Anadolu Agency that FSA fighters had "managed to advance on the Al-Hammamiyat barricade [checkpoint] and destroy a Syrian army tank."



The Syrian regime, meanwhile, has continued to pound Hama's northern outskirts and the Jabal al-Zawiya area from the air as clashes remain ongoing nearby, forcing numerous residents to flee the area.



Syria's years-long conflict, which has left the country divided between warring factions, was triggered by a bloody crackdown by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad on pro-democracy demonstrations in early 2011.



Since then, the conflict has displaced half of the country's population, with nearly four million Syrians seeking refuge in neighboring countries, mostly in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. - Suriye