DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Intense fighting among rival foreign-sponsored terrorist groups in the restive northwestern part of Syria has provided the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorists with the opportunity to wrest control over the predominantly Kurdish city of Afrin in Aleppo province, which had been held by Turkish-backed forces.
HTS members pushed heavily armed convoys into Afrin and the surrounding countryside, and they are now reportedly heading towards the city of Azaz, located 32 kilometers northwest of Aleppo.
Local sources said at least a dozen militants have also been killed since last week, when a hit squad affiliated to the Hamzah Division of the Turkish-backed and so-called Syrian National Army (SNA) shot dead Muhammad Abdul Latif, a prominent activist commonly known as Abo Ghanoum.
Abo Ghanoum’s killing subsequently outraged the residents of al-Bab city, where he lived and died. The latest developments prompted locals to demand the dissolution of the Hamzah Division.
“The Hamzah Division is a group of displaced fighters from Aleppo that enjoy Turkish intelligence and military support, and it receives special support from Turkish experts to develop local armored vehicles similar to Turkish ones,” a source said on condition of anonymity.
Locally, the Hamzah Division is nicknamed “Turkey’s spoiled child.”
In another development, at least 18 Syrian government soldiers were killed and more than two dozen others injured in a terrorist bomb attack near the capital Damascus.
The deadly attack occurred on Thursday, when an explosive device attached to a military bus in Damascus countryside went off, killing 18 soldiers and wounding 27 others, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.
“A military bus in Damascus countryside was targeted this morning by a terrorist detonation with an explosive device that was planted in advance,” SANA said, citing a military source.
The terrorist attack is considered to be one of the deadliest in months against Syrian government troops not on an active front line.
Attacks in particular have been on the rise, including in the Damascus countryside.