DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – At least seven civilians were killed on Monday by a fresh mortar attack by terrorists on Syrian government-held areas in a town in the central province of Hama, state TV reported.
A child was among those killed in the renewed terrorist shelling on the town of Naor in the northwestern countryside of Hama, said the report.
The shelling comes amid an escalation in that region.
Overnight, the terrorists fired 20 ground-to-ground missiles on the city of Masyaf in the western countryside of Hama, leaving unknown losses.
The situation in the northwestern province of Idlib, which is the last major terrorist stronghold in Syria, as well as the nearby countryside of Hama, has been escalating since April when a Russian and Turkish-backed de-escalation zones' deal failed to materialize.
Earlier, a large number of foreign terrorists were killed in a foiled attempt to capture the Syrian Army’s military positions in Hama, the Arabic-language media outlets reported Monday.
The Arabic-language website of Russian Sputnik news agency quoted a military source as saying that the Syrian Army killed at least 40 foreign terrorists, most of them elite Chinese, Chechen and Belgian terrorists and also wounded tens of others as well as destroying a large number of military and armored vehicles.
The Arabic-language Moraseloun news website, meantime, pointed to terrorists’ unprecedented rocket attacks on the surrounding areas of al-Masiyaf region in northern Hama, and said the Ankara-backed terrorists have apparently been equipped with advanced missile systems by Turkey.
In a relevant development on Sunday, the Syrian Army troops warded off terrorists’ massive attacks on the strategic region of Sahl al-Ghab in northwestern Hama as Tahrir al-Sham al-Hay’at (the Levant Liberation Board or the Al-Nusra Front) has sent hundreds more terrorists to the region.
The pro-militant Arabic-language Anab Baladi news website reported that about 500 Tahrir al-Sham terrorists and other terrorists of al-Fath al-Mobin Operations Room have been sent to Sahl al-Ghab region in Northwestern Hama.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Army troops engaged in fierce clashes with the terrorists who had attacked the government forces’ military positions in the town of al-Qasabieh in northern Hama and fended off their attacks after destroying their military and armored vehicles as well as killing a large number of terrorists.

A file photo taken early on January 21, 2019 shows Syrian air defense batteries responding to the Zionist regime’s missiles targeting Damascus.