Anti-Assad forces head towards frontline for counter-attack in Idlib Province, northwest Syria, August 27, 2019

Anti-Assad forces counter-attacked in northwest Syria on Tuesday, seeking to check a Russia-regime advance that has taken part of the last major opposition area in the country.

Rebels and residents spoke of the counter-attack north of Khan Sheikhoun, the “ghost town” in southern Idlib Province seized last week by the four-month Russian-regime offensive on Idlib and northern Hama Provinces.

Assad regime units, enabled by Russian airstrikes and special forces, have consolidated their gains in the past week. They include the area south of Khan Sheikhoun, emptied of almost all 90,000 residents by months of pro-Assad attacks, and almost all of northern Hama.

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However, the Russian-regime offensive is expected to push north of Khan Sheikhoun, along the M5 highway between Aleppo and Homs and towards the town of Ma’arat al-Nu’man.

Captain Naji Mustafa, spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Liberation Front, said Tuesday, “We launched pre-emptive operations that targeted areas where the army was mobilizing and were able to inflict heavy losses in equipment and lives.”

He claimed more than 40 Assad troops were killed, with rebels seizing a tank, three BMP armored vehicles, a heavy machine gun, and anti-armor missile launchers.

Abu Qutada al Shami, a commander in the Failaq al-Sham faction, echoed to Reuters, “We have killed dozens of Assad [fighters].”

The Islamist bloc Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham claimed a suicide attack against pro-Assad forces near Abu Dali in southern Idlib Province.

Pro-opposition activists claimed significant losses among the regime’s 5th Corps, including its commander, from the Abu Dali attack.