By Moon Of Alabama

December 21, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - The Syrian army campaign to liberate the terrorist held Idleb governorate was restarted yesterday. The campaign had been halted at the end of August after ceasefire negotiations between Turkey and Russia. Since then nearly a thousand people have died on all sides around Idleb during skirmishes, artillery attacks by rebels on Aleppo city and Syrian and Russian air strikes.

The general aim of the re-launched campaign is to liberate the cities Maarat al-Numan and Saraqib and to gain control over the north to south M5 highway between Hama and Aleppo.

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The currently most active front is in the southeast of the territory where at least two axes of attacks take place in the direction of Maarat a-Numan, a city that 80,000 inhabitants when the war on Syria started. The terrain is relatively flat and allows to make good use of tanks.

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The ground campaign is supported by more than 100 aerial bombing runs per day and by heavy artillery strikes.

The Syrian news agency SANA reports first successes:

Syrian Arab Army’s units on Friday cleared villages and farms of Um Jalal, Rabe’a, Khreibah, Sh’aret al-Ajayz, Barnan, and Um Twineh, Tal Mahoo, al-Fariha, Bresa, and Tal al-Sheeh in Idleb southeastern countryside after fierce clashes with terrorist organizations, inflicting heavy losses upon them.
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The reporter indicated that that the farms and villages which had been cleared included basic headquarters for the terrorist organizations used by them to attack the safe areas and launch rockets on people in Aleppo southeastern countryside and Hama northern countryside.