The jihadists of the Turkestan Party and Levant Liberation Board’ groups, formerly al-Nousra Front, a group registered on the international terrorism list, bombed military positions and civilian localities with shells and unmanned aerial vehicles, a statement from the center said.

It added that hostile actions were aimed at targets in government-controlled areas in Idlib and Latakia governments.

The national army managed during its operations in 2020 to liberate 56 percent of Idlib, but radicals still control less than half of it, where they are holding hundreds of thousands of civilians as human shields.

At Damascus’ request, Russia in 2015 sent forces to Syria to help fight terrorism, which are mainly concentrated at the Hemeimim airbase and the naval base in Tartous in the eastern Mediterranean.

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