© REUTERS / Khalil Ashawi
According to the Russian Center for Syrian reconciliation, almost 70 al-Nusra (also known as Tahrir al-Sham) militants were killed, as the government forces jointly with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) repelled the terrorist group's attack in Syria's southern de-escalation zone. The Russian military noted that there were no losses among the Syrian army's servicemen, but provided no details regarding casualties among the FSA units.
"Over the past 24 hours, Jabhat al-Nusra militants have attacked the settlements in the southern zone of de-escalation, which joined the legitimate government," the center's statement reads.
In addition, Syrian government troops have destroyed 3 armored vehicles and 14 pickups carrying the heavy machine guns of militants, according to the statement.
The total number of settlements in the southern de-escalation zone which joined the Syrian government forces increased to 12 on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry pointed out.
Comment: Funny how it all works out. Back when Obama and Kerry were still in office, they attempted to "de-marble-ize" the "Syrian opposition", i.e. separate the "good" from "bad" terrorists (which included the FSA). Back then it was simply hollow words, a stalling strategy and an attempt to protect al-Qaeda from Russian airstrikes under the excuse that there were "good" terrorists mixed in with them. Now, FSA are finally separating themselves - and they're joining forces with the Syrian Army to destroy al-Qaeda.