Source: Fars News
The Syrian army attacked the terrorists in Aleppo province, and inflicted heavy losses on the militants over the past 24 hours.

The Syrian army killed and wounded scores of terrorists as they engaged in heavy clashes with the militants in the Western countryside of the city of Aleppo.

The Syrian army also inflicted heavy losses on the terrorist groups in other key regions across Syria.

Aleppo

The Syrian Army troops continued their advances against the ISIL in the Eastern parts of Aleppo province, and seized a strategic town close to the Southern gates of the town of al-Bab on Sunday.

The army soldiers started their operation in the town of Tadif this morning and managed to purge the town of ISIL terrorists after several hours of fierce clashes.

A military source said the army men started the Tadif operation from the town of Abu Taltal and opened their way into the key town.

Clashes were underway in the areas surrounding the newly-liberated town, he added.

The source further stated that no fighting has thus far been reported between the Syrian soldiers and the Turkish forces deployed in the region.

Reports said earlier on Sunday that the army troops engaged in fierce clashes with ISIL and managed to win back the towns of Laqiteh, al-Shami, Syritel hill (Tal Fikheh) and Abu Jabbar Kabir and al-Maqzouwat farms South of the terrorist-held town of al-Bab.

Field sources in Eastern Aleppo said that the army men also pushed ISIL back from the towns of Mastariheh Meiri, strategic Salim mountain, Um Khazreh mountain, Khirbet al-Kayar, Qasr al-Brij, Shahnaseh, al-Mazroufeh and several more positons and farms in the region.

A large number of ISIL terrorists, including foreign nationals, were killed and a number of bomb-laden suicide vehicles were destroyed in the army advances.

Homs

Syrian Army troops stormed ISIL’s defense lines in Eastern Homs and beat the terrorists back from al-Maher oil and gas field with the back up of the country’s fighter jets and artillery fire.

The army soldiers, backed up by warplanes and artillery units’ heavy fire, managed to advance against the ISIL and captured al-Maher energy field, killing and wounding a number of terrorists.

A field source said that the army aircraft’s heavy bombardments and artillery units’ fire inflicted major losses on the ISIL.

Elsewhere in the same province, the Syrian fighter jets pounded terrorists’ positions and gatherings in al-Waer district in the Northeastern outskirts of Homs city in retaliation for the terrorists’ suicide attack.

Idlib-Hama

The Syrian Army troops and aircraft launched massive attacks on terrorist groups’ concentration centers and positions in Southern Idlib and Northern Hama, killing over 15 and wounding several more, including a field commander.

The warplanes carried out severe attacks on the positions and movements of Al-Nusra Front (recently renamed to Fatah al-Sham Front) and Jeish al-Nasr in the villages of Ma’ar Harmeh and al-Jaberiyeh, killing seven terrorists, wounding 13 others and destroying a military vehicle.

The army aircraft meantime bombed a position of Jeish al-Nasr in the village of al-Mastariheh in Southeastern Idlib, destroying the position completely and killing eight militants.

The army soldiers also launched heavy attacks on terrorists’ positions in the town of al-Latamina in Northern Hama, killing a commander of Tajamo al-Ezzah known as Abdul Qader Abdul Karim.

The army men also targeted gatherings and concentration centers of terrorists in Northern Hama, destroying a command post of Ahrar al-Sham in Kafr Zita, and killing a number of members of Al-Nusra Front and Jeish al-Nasr in the village of al-Homeirat and Tal (hill) Hawash.

Raqqa

The predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continued the third phase of the Euphrates Rage Operation in Raqqa province and drove ISIL out of more territories to close off the main road between Raqqa and Deir Ezzur.

The SDF opened a fourth front against ISIL to block the road used by the Wahhabi terrorists between the cities of Raqqa and Deir Ezzur.

The Kurdish forces engaged in intense clashes with ISIL in the village of Khirbet 67km Northeast of Deir Ezzur and advanced some 28 km against ISIL, taking control over the villages of Halwa, Qamar al-Din and Malha al-Sarv.

In the meantime, the SDF managed to win control over the village of Qandil Sherki, Abu Khashab and Malehat al-Zour in al-Makman battlefield in Western Deir Ezzur.

Dara’a

ISIL terrorists engaged in heavy infighting with other rival groups in Western Dara’a on Sunday and seized control over two towns.

The ISIL-affiliated terrorist group of Jeish Khalid Bin Valid started a new round of hostilities with other militant groups in Western Dara’a and took control of the towns of Jalin and al-Mazira’ah after fierce clashes.

The ISIL further attacked the positions of rival groups in the village of Sheikh Saeed Northeast of Jalin.

Field sources, meantime, reported that terrorist groups in Dara’a city have dispatched fresh forces and more military equipment to Western Dara’a to reinvigorate their comrades in the war against ISIL.

Source: SANA
The US-led coalition that claims to be fighting ISIS terrorist organization once again hit Syrian strategic infrastructure, destroying a bridge in the eastern countryside of the northern Raqqa province.

Identical local and media sources reported Saturday that aircrafts of the coalition targeted again during the past 24 hours al-Meghle Bridge west of Maadan village, located 60 km east of Raqqa city.

The strikes caused the bridge to go out of service, the sources confirmed.

The destruction of al-Meghle Bridge, which links the two banks of the Euphrates River, has thus caused al-Jazira area completely disconnected.

This is not the only bridge that has been destroyed in airstrikes by the US-led coalition, which started in 2014 an operation to allegedly fight ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

On February 3rd, the new Raqqa Bridge and the old Raqqa Bridge in Raqqa city and the two bridges of al-kalta and al-Abbara villages were fully destroyed by coalition warplanes.

Coalition raids also demolished a bridge in the surroundings of al-Yamama village in the western countryside of Raqqa on January 18th, two weeks after other raids destroyed a bridge on Aleppo-Raqqa highway in the surroundings of al-Msheirfeh village in the same countryside of the province.

In last September and October, the coalition warplanes hit and destroyed a number of bridges on the Euphrates River and al-Khabour River.

The coalition airstrikes, which have been taking place illegally without a Security Council mandate, have claimed many civilian lives. The latest massacre committed in the course of the coalition operation took place almost two days ago in which 11 people, including two children and a woman in al-Tabqa city and Tishreen Farm in the countryside of Raqqa.

Source: FarsNews
Iraqi armed forces and popular troops launched large-scale operation to take back the ISIL’s self-proclaimed capital, Mosul, early Monday morning, Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi announced minutes ago.

Prime Minister Al-Abadi appeared on the state TV an hour after midnight to declare that his country’s army, security and mobilized volunteer troops have started the long-awaited offensive to take back the country’s second-largest city.

“The hour has come and the moment of great victory is near,” Al-Abadi said early on Monday in a speech on state TV, flanked by the armed forces’ top commanders.

Al-Abadi vowed that the military troops will take maximum caution to save civilian lives and avoid collateral damage in the city that is believed to still be home to over a million people.

The premier asked the civilian population to raise white flags over their buildings and contact the government troops for any kind of helpful information that they might have about ISIL militants.

“We urge you, the heroic people of Mosul, to cooperate with our security forces to rescue you,” the Prime Minister added.

Mosul in Nineveh province that is ISIL’s last stronghold in Iraq was occupied by the terrorist cult on June 10, 2014 and its liberation marks an era of demise for ISIL in Iraq.

Mosul was the first city taken by the terrorist group and it was there that ISIL Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared his so-called caliphate on June 29, 2014.

ISIL could stretch control over 40 percent of Iraq after it took Mosul over two years ago, but now holds only 10 percent of the country after losing battles in such major cities as Beiji, Tikrit, Fallujah and Ramadi in the last one year.

Mosul is of paramount importance both to Iraq and the ISIL as it is in an oil-rich region close to the borders with Syria and Turkey, while it has been a regional trade hub for the last several centuries. In addition to smuggling crude stolen from the oil wells of Nineveh, ISIL also levied forceful taxes for various reasons from the over 1-million-strong population that is still believed to be living in the city. Loss of Mosul will inflict a major blow to the terrorist cult as it will lose a major source of its revenues.

Iraqi army troops and volunteer forces (Hashd al-Shaabi) had been deployed 15 kilometers from Mosul two days ago.

“The reconnaissance operation in Mosul ended; we are waiting for the operations to kick off,” Hashd al-Shaabi announced in a statement on Saturday.

Iraq’s military forces have been bringing in a large number of troops, weapons, ammunition, armored vehicles, personnel carriers, tanks and other types of military equipment in preparation for the operation for the last several weeks, but many military and state officials and popular forces’ commanders were slamming the US for pressurizing Baghdad to delay the operation for the last several months, a view that was even supported by US presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In his second televised debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump asked why the US has been hindering the operation for such a long time to give ISIL commanders and top brass to escape to Syria.

ISIL has also been preparing for the operation for the last several weeks. The terrorist group has reportedly used thousands of prisoners to dig a complicated network of tunnels and trenches around the city and filled the wide trench dug around the city with oil to put it on fire as it expects the city to go under siege by Iraq’s joint military troops. The terrorist group has opened multiple fronts to confront the government troops.

Meantime, many ISIL top commanders, including Al-Baghdadi himself and his deputies, as well as their family members have left the city for Raqqa, the terrorist cult’s second self-proclaimed capital.

Al-Baghdad and his top aides left the city last week, while local sources in Nineveh disclosed on Sunday that the families of the ISIL terrorists that had left Mosul just arrived in the town of Merkedeh in Syria’s Hasaka province.

“The ISIL commanders, including al-Baghdadi, are escaping Mosul to Syria,” Iraqi Kurdistan Democrat Party’s media director Saeed Mamouziti said last week.

He said that al-Baghdadi has also ordered his followers to completely destroy Mosul if they are defeated in the war against Iraq’s joint military forces.

Later Mamouziti said that the ISIL militants were fleeing the city since the long-awaited large-scale operation to free Mosul was expected to be launched in the following days.

Meantime, local sources revealed that “ISIL commanders’ families, including over 25 foreign families, escorted by military convoys reached the town of Merkedeh” on Sunday.

Earlier on Sunday, local sources in Nineveh province disclosed that the ISIL has brought to a halt all activities of its security offices in the city of Mosul.

“The ISIL has recently issued a circular in Mosul city according to which all its offices will halt operation until further notice,” a local source said.

The source noted that the ISIL has already evacuated its security offices in several districts of Mosul in recent days, while many ISIL members seem confused to see the rush in their commanders’ actions.

The US has also been pressuring Baghdad to keep the Hasha Al-Shaabi away from the operation, but they are now deployed to the battlefield after Prime Minister al-Abadi, the commander-in-chief of Iraq’s armed forces, personally approved their participation in the Mosul operation last week.

The Iraqi media had earlier reported that the Mosul operations would start from several directions, the most important of which are al-Qayyara axis located 60 kilometers to the South of Mosul and Sahl Nineveh some 20 kilometers to the East of the city.

Several Iraqi army units have been stationed in the Northern parts of Mosul over the past two days.

After reports said that the US is hindering Iraq’s operations in Mosul to provide the ISIL terrorists with an opportunity to flee to Raqqa, a senior commander of Iraqi popular forces stressed his forces’ resolve to block the escape path of ISIL terrorists from Mosul to Syria.

“Our forces will not allow the ISIL militants to flee to Syria and we have gathered precise intelligence about the enemy before starting the Mosul liberation operation,” Ahmad al-Assadi, also the spokesman of the popular forces and an Iraqi legislator, said in a statement on Saturday.

He also rejected media reports on the Iraqi army’s agreement with the ISIL to leave Mosul, and said, “There is no deal and the ISIL militants in Nineveh will by crushed in the Mosul battle.”

FarsNews
“The army men and the National Defense Forces (NDF), tipped off by the intelligence agents, surrounded the group of the ISIL terrorists carrying suicide-belts and arrested them,” the sources said, adding, “The suicide attackers were mostly between 16-20 age and even one of them was at the age of 13.”

“Three of the suicide bombers exploded their explosives but none of the army men was injured in the blasts,” the sources said.

Earlier reports said that the Syrian Army troops and NDF, who captured al-Rasafeh energy-rich region earlier today, hit ISIL’s positions around the region’s oil and power facilities and captured them after hours of heavy clashes.

The Syrian government forces won the battle against the ISIL in al-Rasafeh triangle and captured oil pumping station and power station in this region.

The Syrian soldiers and NDF moved towards al-Rasafeh crossroad from Ithriya-Raqqa road.

The Syrian army men have cut off the ISIL communication lines in this region and are now hunting the remaining pockets of the Takfiri militants near al-Rasafeh.

Source: Fars News
The Syrian and Russian air force jets conducted intensive airstrikes in Raqqa province, destroying several ISIL military installations across the province in Northern Syria, a battlefield source said on Thursday.

Syrian and Russian warplanes repeatedly struck the terrorist group’s supply hubs inside the city of Raqqa, leaving several terrorists dead and significant amount of their equipment destroyed.

The airstrikes over Raqqa province have recently intensified as the Syrian Army is running an operation to recapture the ancient city of Palmyra.

Among the many targets for the Syrian and Russian air forces are the terrorist group’s primary supply routes to Hama province and the oil rich town of Al-Sukhanah in Homs province.

As a result of the aerial campaign, the Syrian infantry forces have been able to quickly advance in suburban areas near Palmyra, while ISIL struggles to get the necessary support for its fighters.

In recent days, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have been engaged in heavy clashes with ISIL in Northern Raqqa province.

The clashes began as the ISIL launched a wave of suicide attacks on the YPG and SDF centers in the Southern parts of Salouk town, Northern Raqqa.

In another development in Raqqa, the ISIL terrorists’ offensive against the YPG forces in Jantrari village in the Eastern parts of Ain Issa town, was responded by the Kurdish resistance forces.

During the clashes between the YPG and the ISIL terrorists in the region, three militants and two Kurds were killed.

Source: South Front
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies are continuing to clash against ISIS in Southeastern Aleppo. On Wednesday, the pro-government forces seized the villages of Shabib, Kharbeel, ‘Akeel, Al-Qalay’at, and Sirada in Khanasser Plains expanding a buffer zone along the strategic supply route to Aleppo.

At least 26 members of al Nusra and Jund al-Aqsa have been killed in a series of their failed offensives in Tal al-Eiss. However, there are no indications that militants will cut their attempt to counter-attack in the area.

Syrian and Russian warplanes intensified air raids on ISIS positions at Palmyra. According to reports, the aerial operation focused on as-Sawwanah and al-Bayarat areas near the city. The Syrian artillery units also pounded the militants’ positions in the oil-rich region of Jezl.

Meanwhile, ISIS launched offensive in the Eastern and Southeastern parts of Homs province attacking the loyalists’ strongholds in al-Maqale’a (quarries), Thaniyeh al-Rajmeh and Dhuhour al-Hayyal. The SAA repel these attacks.

The SAA launched an offensive on an ISIS stronghold near the town of Quaryatayn. Clashes are ongoing there.

On Mar.9, there reportedly were sporadic clashes between the civilians and ISIS militants in the city of Raqqa, the self-proclaimed Caliphate’s capital in Northeastern Syria. ISIS answered with setting up additional checkpoints and a new wave of arrests across the city. Earlier there have been a series of reports that some 200 militants switched sides and seized part of the city of Raqqa.

One has to consider the distinctive possibility such reports represent an effort by local Sunni tribes to establish a truce with at least one of the two main forces marching in the direction of Raqqa: the Syrian Arab Army or the Kurdish militias. Such developments represent the fact that ISIS has started to lose the influence even in the formally controlled territories of Syria.