Zour al-Mahrouqa…Now a springboard for restoring security to entire Hama northern countryside after itself turned the page on terrorism
Hama, SANA – Zour al-Mahrouqa in the northern countryside of Hama province has turned the page on a tough time of repulsive takfiri terrorism and is now recovering after security was restored to it by the Syrian Arab army.
By establishing full control over this area and restoring stability to it, the army has added a new victory to a string of achievements it has made in the northern countryside of the central province within a large-scale military operation that started a month ago with the aim of fully cleansing Hama northern countryside, including the countryside of Souran and Mhardeh, of terrorists.
The town of Zour al-Mahrouqa is located to the northwest of Tibet al-Imam town to which the army restored security last month and was considered one of the most beautiful areas in the province, and the richest in pistachio and olive trees, before it had been overrun by the terrorist organizations, particularly Jabhat al-Nusra, which had committed grave acts of killing and kidnapping against its locals.
Speaking of the town’s strategic position in the middle of the four largest populated areas in the province; Mhardeh to the west, Tibet al-Imam to the south, Souran and Mourek to the east and al-Latamneh to the south, a field commander told journalists that the location of the town is very important as it constituted a vital and logistic corridor for terrorists who used it as a springboard for firing mortar shells on Mhardeh, Tibet al-Imam and Souran.
He clarified that a specific plan had been drawn up to achieve “a strategic goal” in the battle to regain control over Zour al-Mahrouqa in terms of dismembering the terrorist organizations and razing the largest of their dens in the area, which is that of the so-called “al-Gher al-Mayamin Brigade”, among other terrorist groups.
Recounting the details of the plan, the commander said that the armed forces advanced towards the town from two directions; east of Souran and south of Tibet al-Iman, and attacked the positions of the terrorist organizations at the various entrances of the area and in the surrounding hills.
For their part, the engineering units, he added, dismantled scores of explosive devices and roadside bombs which the terrorists had planted on agricultural roads, in pistachio orchards and in the residential buildings.
The commander went on saying that the terrorist organizations then were forced to leave their positions and retreat to the northern and western orchards, while the armed forces moved on backed by the national defense units and managed to establish full control over the whole area and all the surrounding farms.
He touched upon the importance of the den of “al-Gher al-Mayamin Brigade” for the terrorists, saying that the den consisted of a number of 15 m long and 6 m wide caves containing four operating rooms, noting that the caves had been dug by the members of the terrorist organizations into cliffs using Turkish techniques.
The commander told the reporters that the army units seized huge amounts of weapons and ammunition which the terrorists left behind when they fled the area, including boxes of ammunition for heavy and medium machine guns / Dushka and Chilka/, snipers, automatic rifles, explosive devices, launching pads for mortars and locally and foreign made rockets, more than a hundred160-mm mortar rounds and over 30 rockets.
A homemade cannon called “hell cannon” was also seized along with more than 40 shells, in addition to telecommunication devices, food items and Saudi-made medical equipment, in addition to documents and papers showing the numbers of terrorists and their specialties and nationalities.
With the army in control of Zour al-Mahrouqa, the town will be a springboard from which the army units will continue to advance and press ahead with operations until restoring security and stability to the entire northern countryside of Hama.
SYRIA 360° INTERNATIONALIST 