Two children were killed and six others were injured on Saturday evening in a mutual shelling on residential neighborhoods in the southern countryside of Idlib Governorate, northwest Syria, between the government forces and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS -formerly al-Nusra Front).
An administrative source from the Civil Defense team stated that two siblings were killed and their mother was injured, in addition to three others and a woman being injured in the government forces’ shelling on residential neighborhoods in the town of Kansafra, south of Idlib. An old man was also injured in a similar shelling that targeted the village of Deir Sonbol, south of Idlib.
The source told North Press that the shelling also targeted the villages of Majdaliya, al-Bara, and al-Mozara in southern Idlib, as well as the outskirts of the village of Kafr Nouran west of Aleppo, without any reported injuries.
Simultaneously, the HTS targeted government forces’ posts in the town of Kafr Nabl, south of Idlib, Tala al-Malek, north of Latakia Governorate, on the Syrian coast, and the axis of Regiment 46 west of Aleppo, in addition to al-Malaja camp and the village of Hazarin, south of Idlib.
Prior to the shelling, the HTS detonated a tunnel targeting the government forces, which was dug beneath the Malaja Camp, killing and injuring 25 soldiers of the government forces. They also targeted a tank in the village of Hazarin, according to sources
Mutual shelling in de-escalation zone in NW Syria leaves casualties
[NPASyria] Mutual shelling between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...(HTS, formerly al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
front) and Syrian government forces resumed on Friday night in the de-escalation zone in the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo, northwestern Syria, causing casualties from both parties.
A military source within the Syrian opposition told North Press that the government forces targeted with heavy artillery and missiles the villages and towns of Fatterah, Kafr Oweid, Sfuhen, Kansafra in Zawiya Mountain in the south of Idlib, and Kafr Taal, Kafr Amma, Tadil, al-Wasata, and al-Qasr in the west of Aleppo.
The shelling caused the killing of two HTS Death Eaters and the injury of three others in Kafr Amma in the west of Aleppo, in addition to major material damages, the source added.
Meanwhile,
...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had been cornered by the banditti...
a military source within the al-Fateh al-Mubin Operations Room, a group of armed Islamist factions, told North Press that HTS targeted with heavy artillery and rockets the posts of the government forces in Regiment 46 and Basratun in the west of Aleppo.
The HTS also attacked the government forces posts in al-Malaja, Kafr Nabl, Khan Subul in the south of Idlib, killing three Syrian soldiers and injuring four others. The Syrian government has yet to comment on the incident.
Jihadists kill 11 Syria soldiers in tunnel attack, says war monitor
[IsraelTimes] Jihadists killed at least 11 soldiers in northwestern Syria Saturday when they detonated explosives placed in tunnels dug underneath army positions before attacking them, a monitor said.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the Ansar al-Tawhid group, which is allied with al-Qaeda, and the Turkestan Islamic Party
...... Uighur jihadi group based in Badakshan, Afghanistan and listed under Tehrik-e-Taliban in the Al Qaeda organization table. Their Syria subsidiary currently reports to Al Nusra in the Idlib-Latakia region, where the Russians and Americans have been taking turns shooting them — they’re on their third Number 1 in three years......(TIP) carried out the attack in the south of Idlib province with its members first detonating a massive bomb and then storming the position manned by government troops.
The jihadists "detonated tunnels they had dug beneath army positions and simultaneously launched an assault from other tunnels", said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britannia-based Observatory.
The attack, which also maimed 20 soldiers, came as Syria and its main military ally Russia bombarded the mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area of Idlib province, the Observatory said, without immediately reporting any casualties.
Other activist collectives, including Amjad News, also reported the attack saying it killed and maimed dozens of soldiers without giving a breakdown.
There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government or state media.
The White Helmets volunteer emergency service said that two children — a brother and sister — were killed and five other civilians maimed when their home in the village of Kansafra was hit.
An AFP photographer witnessed the funerals of the two children.
On Friday, Russia carried out air strikes on the Jisr al-Shughur region further north, where TIP jihadists are present, the Observatory said.
Both groups involved in the tunnel attack are affiliated with the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
(HTS) group, which controls swathes of Idlib province as well as parts of the adjacent provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia.
Seven HTS fighters were killed Friday in bombardments by government forces and at least 13 others in Russian air strikes Monday, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground in Syria for its reports.
Two civilians were also reported to have been killed by Russian strikes near Idlib.
The war monitor said "two jihadists took their own lives" in Saturday’s attack and that the corpse count was expected to rise as the "intense festivities are still ongoing".
The TIP is largely made up of jihadists from China’s Uighur Moslem minority who came to Syria after 2011 to assist groups like HTS, which is led by al-Qaeda’s former affiliate in Syria.