DAMASCUS, Syria — Less than 24 hours after the announcement of the "liberation battle," the northern front in Syria witnessed accelerated developments as Jabhat al-Nusra and Jund al-Aqsa, with the participation of Ahrar al-Sham, seized the al-Hamidiyya and Wadi al-Daif camps on Dec. 15. These belonged to the Syrian army and are located in the southern countryside of Idlib. This significant development comes after two years of repeated attacks on the two camps that have been besieged by opposition fighters for 11 months.

Wadi al-Daif camp is located east of the town of Maarrat al-Numan, which was seized by rebels on Oct. 9, 2012. Al-Hamidiyya camp, which is adjacent to al-Hamidiyya village, is located south of the city of Maarrat al-Numan on the Damascus-Aleppo road. The two camps cover 13 kilometers (8 miles) in length and 3 kilometers (2 miles) in width.

Before the Syrian civil war, these two camps were the largest fuel reservoir for the Syrian army. But as the conflict erupted, the two camps turned into a gathering point for the Syrian armed forces, which used them as a base to launch shells and missiles toward the villages of Idlib’s countryside.

The two camps contain 40 military points, about 1,500 officers and elements of the Syrian army and 50 military vehicles, some of which were destroyed at an earlier stage by attacks on the two camps over the past two years. Helicopters were the only means to deliver supplies to the two besieged camps.