Just hours after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s speech vowing victory over the rebels and “terrorist” groups in several areas of the country, those groups have launched a major offensive on the Latakia countryside in northwest Syria, the regime's stronghold.

The offensive, which the rebels have named "the battle for the liberation of the Syrian Coast,” has surprised the regime forces, said a Syrian source close to the government who spoke to Al-Monitor Aug. 5 on condition of anonymity.

He added that about 2,000 fighters from jihadist organizations, including Jabhat al-Nusra and the State of Iraq and Al-sham groups known to be affiliated with al-Qaeda, have been behind the assault that came from the village of Salma to the Alawite villages located in Al-Haffa, call the operation “the campaign of grandsons of Um al-Mo’menin Aisha,” the controversial wife of the Prophet Muhammad.

This military strike has both a strategic importance and a symbolic one. On the strategic level, the villages are located on high hills that allow those who hold them to control the areas located below. Latakia is the main port in Syria and crucial to the rebels' goal of toppling the Assad regime.