Establishing A New Observation Post By Turkey in al-Ghab Plain; An Attempt to Create a New Military Structure in Idlib

According to the field sources, the Turkish army with sending a massive convoy including 100 armored and engineering vehicles to “Maydan Ghazal” in Sahl al-Ghab( al-Ghab Plain), established a new observation post in the mentioned region.

Also recently, there has been activities from Turkish army in al-Rashedin region, just southwest of Aleppo.
The Turkish forces have an active presence in these regions, and also it has been said that al-Rashedin has become a new observation post by the Turkish army.

It also needs mentioning that from October 13, 2017 –the first official arrival of Turkish army in west of Syria– Turkey established around twelve “observation posts” in Aleppo, Idlib and Hama provinces.

An interesting matter about the future of the regions which are under the influence of Turkey in northwest of Syria –Idlib, other parts of western Aleppo, Hama and northern Lattakia– is that they are creating a new “military structure”, including militias.

According to field sources of militants, there will be a new “military structure” in mentioned provinces, a structure which the establishments of those “observation posts” in these provinces, is only the beginning.

Though yet, some of the extremist groups like Tahrir Al-Sham, have not accepted this matter, but the history has proven itself that in long term, the nature of the situation in this region will push them towards this new particular structure.

In fact on April 8, 2018, with the establishment of these new “observation posts” by Turkey in Hama and Morek region, there completes the establishment of observation posts in all contact lines between the Syrian army and militants from south Aleppo to north of Hama, and practically with this the SAA is completely blocked behind these lines and stopped from any further advances”

In the past month –with the defeat of the militants in Eastern Ghouta and southern Damascus, and also with the “soon to be achieved” defeat of ISIS in Yarmouk camp in southern Damascus– one of the probable goals of the Syrian government would be reinstating (law and) order in northwest of Syria, notably the northern Lattakia, al-Ghab plain and its northern part, namely, Jisr Al-Shoghor.

So in accordance with these, the Turkish army extending its observation posts around al-Ghab plain, southwest of Idlib and northern Lattakia in order to get the upper hand in these regions and to prevent the advances of Syrian army in future.

The northern Lattakia, however, have been long under the intelligence and military control of the Turkey and we can say that the Lattakia’s observation post, have been established already.

Recently, an official of the FSA, known as “Ibrahim al-Idlibi”, in an interview mentioned that “ The Idlib map and its surrounding regions will be drawn by Turkey’s observation post, and we can put it this way, that the war between SAA & militants in this region, have ended for ever.”

According to the above explanation, the concept of “A New Military Structure” in northwest of Syria which is under the control of militants, becomes more and more obvious.

A structure which encompasses extremist groups like Tahrir al-Sham within itself, and would integrate that region, creating another autonomous region in Syria.

On May 15 and 16, 2018 , meetings were held in Astanah in order to finalize the “de-Escalation Zone Plan”, soon the map of the “Square” will be determined.

Wait for the end of ISIS in southern Damascus and end of Ramadan…

Map of Turkish observation posts in Aleppo, Idlib, Hama