Militants Violate Buffer Zone Deal in Hama, Syria Army Responds

The Takfiri militants’ positions in the vicinity of al-Arbaeen village in the countryside of Hama were bombed after snipers belonging to militant groups launched an attack on military posts in the buffer zone, SANA reported.

The report added that a large number of the militants were killed and injured in the counterattack.

The village, where the clashes broke out, is located in a planned buffer zone, which surrounds Idlib and also parts of the adjacent provinces of Aleppo and Hama.

Under a deal reached following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in September, all militants should have withdrawn from the demilitarization zone by October 15.

However, al-Qaeda-linked Takfiri terrorists said they refuse to either leave the buffer zone or hand over their weapons.

Moscow believed that the 15-20 kilometer buffer zone would help stop attacks from Idlib-based militants on Syrian army positions and Russia's military bases in the flashpoint region.

Idlib and some surrounding areas are the last major bastions of Takfiri terrorists and anti-government militants in Syria, where the Syrian government has in recent months retaken much of the territory it had lost since the conflict erupted in the country in 2011.

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