Days after receiving a fleet of Russian warplanes MiG 29s, Syria unleashed its new fighter jets to target Turkey-back rebels in the northwestern countryside of Hama and neighboring Latakia.
As per the local Syrian news source, the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) has unleashed a massive attack on a jihadist militant base inside the town of Al-Sirmaniyeh belonging to the Turkey-backed Muslim terrorist group the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP).
The TIP largely comprises of Uyghurs also spelled Uighur fighters from China. The Uyghurs - a Muslim ethnic minority primarily based in China's Xinjiang province - established a presence in northern Syria in the early years of the civil war.
It is estimated that there are over 30,000 foreign Muslim fighters mainly Uyghur, Tajik, Uzbek, Turks, and others from 103 nationalities are in Syria. The Chinese Uyghur-dominated jihadist group - TIP - has been fighting alongside Al Qaeda in Syria.
Syrian Air Force soon after acquiring the planes from Russia deployed its newest fleet of Russian MiG 29 fighter jets into service. Syrian morale has been running high as it is claimed that these Russian MiG 29 would prove to be an able competition for Turkey and Israel's F-16 fighter planes.
The Russian warplanes carried out continuous attacks that came in waves starting Tuesday evening and went on till dawn on Wednesday. The fighter jets bombed an area where the boundaries of Hama, Idlib, and Latakia provinces meet, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
This is the first time since the ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Russia, the Syrians carried out air raids in Syria's last major rebel-held area, Al Jazeera reported.
The Syrian Air Force concentrated their assault on the Turkestan Islamic Party's positions inside the key mountaintop town of Kabani, where the Assad forces had badly been defeated as they even after an eight-month-long battled had failed to capture it.
According to a report in Al-Masdar, close 1,500 TIP militants, mainly comprising of Chinese Uyghurs have taken position in Jabal Al-Zawiya and Sahel Al-Ghab, after moving their families to the Syrian-Turkish border. In recent weeks, there have been a string of attacks that have been carried out by the rebels against the Syrian and Russian forces.
