Syrian Army captures several villages near the Turkish border

The Syrian Arab Army’s 48th Special Forces Regiment was busy on Friday, striking several villages that the extremist rebels from Jabhat Al-Nusra (Syrian Al-Qaeda group) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) were able to recapture earlier this week near the Turkish border with Jabal Al-Akrad (Kurdish Mountains). The 48th Regiment – backed by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), the Syrian Marines, and the National Defense Forces (NDF) – imposed full control over the villages of Harrah Al-Murzalah, Harrah Al-Tahoun, Al-Qastal, Hayr Al-Dabeen, and Jabal Al-Nimleh after a violent battle with Jabhat Al-Nusra and the Free Syrian Army’s “1st Coastal Brigade”. In addition to recapturing the aforementioned villages, the Syrian Armed Forces were able to advance north in order to seize Hill 338 and Hill 446; this left them within 500 meters of the Turkish border-crossing.

According to an Al-Masdar correspondent in Damascus, the Syrian Armed Forces captured Kinsibba Castle on Friday afternoon, but later withdrew after reinforcements from Jabhat Al-Nusra’s Turkmen Brigade arrived to help drive back the government forces. Meanwhile, near the Idlib Governorate’s border, the Syrian Arab Army’s 103rd Brigade of the Republican Guard continued their assault on Kabani’s southern flank, hitting several enemy targets with their Russian manufactured Kornet anti-tank missiles (ATGM).