Russian submarine attacks Fatah al-Sham terrorists in Syria's Idlib

A Russian submarine has launched a barrage of Kalibr cruise missiles at the positions of the foreign-sponsored and Takfiri Jabhat Fatah al-Sham – previously known as the Nusra Front – militant group in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib and destroyed them only a few days after the extremists attacked a unit of Russian Military Police in the crisis-hit Arab country.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Veliky Novgorod submarine of the Varshavyanka class – designated “Improved Kilo” by the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – fired the missiles on Friday from the Mediterranean Sea.

“The missile strike targeted the recently detected terrorist strongholds, manpower, and armored vehicles, as well as the ammunition depots of the Jabhat al-Nusra terror group in Idlib province,” an unnamed military source said.

The source added, “The missiles flew about 300 kilometers. According to the objective monitoring data, all the targets have been hit.”

Earlier this week, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham terrorists had attacked Russian troops stationed in the neighboring Hama Province.

Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi, the head of the Russian General Staff's Main Operations Department, also said on Tuesday that Jabhat Fatah al-Sham militants had launched a large-scale attack on the positions of Syrian troops in the Idlib de-escalation zone in order to stop the government forces’ offensive in Dayr al-Zawr province. The attack was later repelled.

Idlib province, which borders Turkey, is largely under the control of Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists. It is covered by one of four designated de-escalation zones set up to separate extremist groups, including Daesh and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, from the so-called moderate outfits.

Syrian army establishes control over several villages in Dayr al-Zawr

Meanwhile, Syrian army soldiers have liberated several villages in the western flank of the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr from the grip of Daesh terrorists.

Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that army units had established control over the villages of Halbia, Zalbia and al-Qasabi.

Army bomb disposal teams are now combing the villages in order to defuse bombs and improvised explosive devices left by Daesh terrorists.

Later in the day, the privately-owned and pro-government al-Ikhbariya al-Soriyah television news network reported that Syrian government forces had reached the banks of the Euphrates River, and completed the siege on Takfiri militants inside the provincial capital city of Dayr al-Zawr.

Daesh overran large parts of Dayr al-Zawr province, including its many oil fields, in mid-2014 as it seized swathes of land in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

By early 2015, the Takfiri terrorists were in control of some parts of Dayr al-Zawr city and besieged the remaining parts, which were under government control. It is estimated that 100,000 people remain in the government-held parts of the city.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that more than 10,000 people may be living in the Daesh-held parts of Dayr al-Zawr.

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