LATEST: US-Backed Harakat Hazm Brigade Joins Levant Front in Northwest Syria

Insurgents launched a long-coordinated offensive in Idlib Province in northwest Syria on Thursday, lifting a media blackout on Friday to reveal the first phase of their operations.

The Islamic Front began an assault on a key hill on the southern edge of Ariha, a town to the south of Idlib city, with a view to increasing pressure on the center of Ariha and then capturing it. At the same time, other factions and the Islamists of Jabhat al-Nusra attacked long-held Syrian military positions such as the “Brick Factory” and Mastoomeh camp, preventing the regime from moving forces to Ariha.

See Syria Developing: Insurgents Begin Major Offensive To Take Ariha, South of Idlib, in Northwest

The operation started dramatically with an underground bomb demolishing the “Yellow Mansion”, a regime military headquarters on the al-Arbaeen hill, also known as “Mount 40”. Videos showed the moment of explosion, the storming of the complex, and the offensive’s commander, Abu Issa, touring the tunnel underneath the Mansion.

Insurgents firing on a tank inside Ariha with an anti-tank missile:

Fighting for the hill continued throughout Friday. Insurgent sources said progress was slow, given the heavily-fortified regime positions, but expressed satisfaction.

State news agency SANA claimed the “terrorist attacks” were thwarted, with “tens” of insurgents killed and heavy machine guns, an armored vehicle, and a bulldozer destroyed. It implied that there had been no Syrian military losses, as the Yellow Mansion had been “emptied” before the bombing.

The capture of Ariha would extend the insurgent hold on Idlib Province, most of which is already controlled by the opposition. Strategically, it would threatened the regime’s supply line to their areas in Latakia Province in western Syria on the Mediterranean.

US-Backed Harakat Hazm Brigade Joins Levant Front in Northwest Syria

The US-backed Harakat Hazm brigade has joined the Levant Front in northwest Syria, boosting the coalition that was formed in December 2014 to confront both the Assad regime and the Islamic State.

Harakat Hazm is the second brigade from the Free Syrian Army to join the Front.

Harakat Hazm has been clashing with Jabhat al-Nusra in northwest Syria, including Aleppo, since November. On Thursday, the Levant Front published a document of reconciliation between the two groups.

Kafranbel Protest: Messages to the World’s “Hypocrities” and to the Souls of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad

Friday’s protest in Kafranbel in northwest Syria sends a message to the world and to President Assad and his predecessor and father, Hafez al-Assad, in banner and song:

One of the lyrics has an “honest wish to the souls of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad”: “May your souls be set on fire [in Hell].”

Assad Regime Continues To Play Down Russian “Peace” Talks

The Assad regime is continuing to play down Russia’s high-profile effort for “political” talks, with Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mikdad criticizing the group who met a regime delegation in Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday.

Mikdad said “some of the opposition parties had not liberated themselves from pressures, foreign dictates, or mistaken convictions”.

See Syria Analysis: Assad Regime Admits Failure of Russian “Peace” Talks

Russia proclaimed since November that the talks would open up a political resolution, but leading opposition groups inside and outside Syria refused to attend. President Assad backed away from the discussions — even though they would support the Russian line that he did not have to give up power — saying that only “individuals” would be attending and the talks would be only “preliminary and consultative”.

Hezbollah’s Nasrallah: We Will No Longer Heed “Rules of Engagement” With Israel

Syrian media features Friday’s address by Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, at a memorial for commanders and fighters of the Lebanese organization who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in southwest Syria.

Nasrallah warned Israel that Hezbollah’s “resistance” will no longer heed “rules of engagement” as it is repelling Israeli aggression.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah fired five anti-tank missiles at an Israeli military convoy in Shebaa Farms, near the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven wounded.

The Israelis fired about 50 artillery shells into Lebanon in response, killing a UN peacekeeper.

See Israel-Lebanon-Syria Developing: Hezbollah Missile Attack Kills 2 Israeli Soldiers, Injures 7

Nasrallah said on Friday:

From now on, when a fighter from resistance is assassinated, the Israeli enemy will be held responsible and thus resistance will have the right to respond wherever and whenever it sees fit, and it whichever way it deems appropriate….

[We] had not had second thoughts about the necessity of retaliation, even if things went to extremes.

Iranian commanders and personnel were also killed in Israel’s January 18 strike in Quneitra Province on two vehicles. The Hezbollah and Iranian commanders may have looking at the installation of Hezbollah missile sites in Syria near Israel’s positions in the Golan Heights.