Syrian army continues to advance in Idlib province, militants look to the “chemical option”

Tabnak – After the failure of a Russian-Turkish deal to bring stability to Syrian’s north-western province of Idlib, the Syrian army has been gradually advancing into the area, retaking the territories under the rebel and terrorist control. Meanwhile, reports indicate that the rebels may resort to a chemical attack to put the blame on Damascus.

In this vein, the Syrian Army has reportedly been preparing to gain full control of the strategic city of Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib.

The Syrian Army has spread its forces to the southern and southwestern administrative borders of Idlib in a bid to accomplish its military operations in the Sahl al-Ghab region of northwestern Hama, Al-Masdar reported citing the Arabic language Sputnik News website.

A war correspondent pointed out that the Syrian Army plans to widen the scope of the military operation, adding that the trend of the military operations shows that the Syrian Army will directly move from recently captured areas in northern Hama towards the strategic city of Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib.

“Once the Syrian Army captures Khan Sheikoun, the terrorists will be militarily defeated in the towns of al-Hobeit and Kafr Zita in northern Hama.” The war correspondent said that Syrian Army advances will also help reopen Aleppo-Hama Highway.

Meanwhile, it’s reported that militants from the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Takfiri terrorist group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, are preparing for a chemical attack in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib to implicate Russia's air force, the Russian Defense Ministry says.

The ministry's Center for Syrian Reconciliation said in a statement released on Friday that it had received information on the matter from the local residents of the northwestern city of Saraqib.

The sources added that the extremists are planning to film the alleged poisoning of civilians next to the fragments of Russian munitions later on, and subsequently publish the video on social media networks or hand it over to Western media outlets to create the false notion that Russian fighter jets have targeted residential neighborhoods in the area with chemical weapons.

On April 14, 2018, the US, Britain and France carried out a string of airstrikes against Syria over a suspected chemical weapons attack on the city of Douma, located about 10 kilometers northeast of the capital Damascus.

Washington and its allies blamed Damascus for the Douma attack, an allegation rejected by the Syrian government. Western governments and their allies have never stopped pointing the finger at Damascus whenever an apparent chemical attack takes place.

Syria surrendered its stockpile of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the United States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry. It has also consistently denied using chemical weapons.