Syrian regime pays heavy price for two strategic towns in Hama
The Syrian opposition says the regime forces resorted to scorched-earth tactics to take back two towns in northern Hama in preparation for the Astana talks.
ALEPPO, Syria — Syrian government forces said Aug. 5 that the truce brokered at the Astana 13 talks has been scrapped, accusing the armed opposition of breaking the agreement and not sticking to the Sochi deal whereby rebel groups were to pull their heavy weapons from the de-escalation zone.
The Syrian regime resumed military operations, air shelling rebel-held sites in the buffer zone, cities and towns in the countryside of Idlib, Hama and Latakia. The opposition factions retaliated with a barrage of artillery shells on regime sites and thwarted the regime forces' advance in the al-Ghab Plain of the Hama countryside. On Aug. 6, four civilians were killed in Syrian airstrikes in the town of Murak in the northern Hama countryside.
The scrapped truce was brokered in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan Aug. 1, in the presence of the Syrian opposition, the Syrian government and the guarantor states of Russia, Iran and Turkey.
Fighting between the Syrian opposition factions and the government forces in the southern Idlib governorate, northern Hama countryside and northern Latakia countryside came to a brief halt on Aug. 2. A cautious calm had reigned over Idlib with intermittent bombing by the regime’s forces, but with no Russian or Syrian warplanes in sight in Idlib’s airspace.
