ALEPPO, Syria — Military tension has escalated on the battlefronts between government forces and the Syrian opposition in Idlib. Since mid-June, violent clashes, shellings and attacks have occurred on the battlefronts, with both sides carrying out infiltration attempts and causing major losses within their ranks.

On June 18, al-Nasar Army (Victory Army), a faction of the National Liberation Front of the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), attacked one of the Syrian government forces’ posts in the Fatatira village in the Ghab Plain northwest of Hama. The targeted axis is located to the south of the M4 highway, south of Idlib. 

The attack killed a number of government forces, including an officer. Government-affiliated official media outlets did not report any casualties within the government forces’ ranks, while several pro-government Facebook pages mourned the killing of Capt. Ali Shabasi as well as Mahmoud Khouzami, Muhammad Jaara and Omar Hamdo, all of whom served in government forces.

A military commander of the FSA’s National Liberation Front told Al-Monitor that a team of al-Nasar Army’s special forces infiltrated a post where members of the government forces are stationed in the Fatatira axis at the Ghab Plain fronts and clashed with them, killing six members. He explained that this operation came in retaliation against government forces who recently killed a number of the faction’s fighters in the Fleifel axes south of Idlib and the Saraqib axis east of Idlib.