Pro-government media sources mourned the loss of a number of Syrian regime soldiers, including high-ranking officers, who were killed during clashes against the “al-Fateh al-Mubeen” factions in the southern and eastern Idlib countryside.

Jableh news agency said on Sunday, 22 December, that sixteen members, including officers from the Nadaf Groups of the regime forces, were killed on the Rafa front, east of Maraat al- Numan, in the southern countryside of Idlib.

Moreover, the al-Masyaf news network, a pro-regime media source, reported the killing of Colonel Basil Ali Khaddour, the commander of the sixth regiment of the special duty ranks of the 25 Division during what it describes as “military operations carried out to liberate Idlib.”

Other pages also mourned the deaths of the First Lieutenant Hosni al-Adawi, Wissam Abdullah Khaddour, Kamel Habib al-Abbas, Hamed Habib Saleh, Muhammad al-Harak Lt. Sumer Muhammad Dalla, and the agricultural engineer, Alaa Shaaban Ali; who were killed during the past two days in the ongoing clashes in rural Idlib and Latakia.

Backed by Russian air power and militia forces on the ground, the Syrian regime forces launched a military operation on the eastern and southern axes of Idlib during the past days. As a result, they were able to gain control over a number of villages in the region, along with attempts to advance on the Kabani axis in the northern countryside of Latakia.

The factions of the al-Fateh al-Mubeen operation room in Idlib responded with missile attacks on the positions and conglomeration of the regime forces in several axes of eastern and southern Idlib and the northern countryside of Latakia. Moreover, the factions countered attempts of the Syrian regime’s advances in those axes, declaring the deaths and injuries of scores of regime soldiers and documenting them with photos and videos and publishing them on their official media outlets.

On 21 December, the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-linked news agency, Ibaa, quoted a leader in the HTS as saying that a “ martyrdom operation” carried out by an HTS fighter struck a grouping of the regime forces in the village of al-Furqa, southeast of Idlib, and resulted in the death of 30 members and the injury of more than 50 others. Ibaa attached this news with photos and a video, showing the moments of bombing in the area.

On 20 December, head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing sides in Syria, Major General Yuri Borenkov said in statements reported by Sputnik, a Russian government-owned news agency, that “during repelling the terrorist attacks, 17 Syrian soldiers were killed, and 42 others were wounded.”

Borenkov estimated the factions’ losses at 200 people dead and wounded.

These clashes take place in rural Idlib and latakia after Russian intense airstrikes on the southern and eastern towns and cities of Idlib countryside in the past days. The Syrian regime and its allies try to establish control over the areas along the M4 international highway and empty the region of its residents.