HTS kills scores of Syrian regime fighters near Aleppo

Scores of Syrian regime fighters were killed by former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on Saturday in attacks on regime positions in the Rashidin area of Aleppo and in the village of Aqrab, west of the city.

At least 30 Syrian regime fighters were killed in the attacks according to HTS affiliated social media accounts.

HTS said its fighters managed to infiltrate into these regime-held areas and vowed to continue such “special” operations against the regime’s army and their allied militias, in retaliation for regime bombing of HTS held areas.

HTS said that three of its fighters were killed in the attack.

On Thursday, regime shelling of a village and refugee camp in opposition-held Idlib province killed seven people.

Regime forces and their allied militias regularly shell Idlib province despite a ceasefire agreement which came into effect in September, which was sponsored by Turkey and Russia.

HTS took control of most of Idlib province from other rebel groups in January.

Earlier today, Islamic State (IS) militants killed 35 regime-affiliated fighters in a series of attacks in Homs and Deirezzor province.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul Rahman described these attacks as “the biggest attack and the highest death toll among regime forces since [Islamic State’s] caliphate was declared defeated".

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