The strategic importance of the Sahl al-Ghab, a vital area that lies between Latakia, Hama and Idlib provinces, has been highlighted since early August by the eruption of violent clashes between Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest) and troops loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Events currently unfolding in the plain — which lies at the junction of three provinces and connects the Idlib region to the mountains of Latakia, the bastion of the Syrian president’s Alawite community — will most likely pave the way for future advances of the rebels in a region considered to be the regime’s strategic depth.
Violent clashes continue in the countryside of Jisr al-Shughur in Idlib and Sahl al-Ghab in the northwestern countryside of Hama between Hezbollah and regime forces supported by militants from Syrian, Arab and Asian nationalities against Jaish al-Fatah — which includes factions such as al-Haq Brigade, Jund al-Aqsa, Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Sunna Army, the Islamic Ahrar Movement, among many others, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
