TASS, August 23. The Syrian Armed Forces have completely cleared the northern areas of the Syrian Hama province of terrorist units, a representative of the Syrian General Staff said in a statement broadcast by the Al Ekhbariya TV channel.
"In the course of an offensive, the Syrian troops surrounded the enemy and decisively defeated him, liberating 16 communities in the north of Hama, as well as the town of Khan Shaykhun in the south of the Idlib province," the spokesman said. He reported that the Syrian army engineer units have begun clearing the communities of mines, as well as the territories around them where minefields were discovered.
"This is being done for the locals to return to their farms and start harvesting as soon as possible," he said.
According to the representative, the criminal gangs "are not able to stop the rapid advance of the valorous Syrian army full of determination to clear all the Syrian territories of terrorists and their sponsors."
Al Ekhbariya reported that the Syrian troops had taken all residential communities in the north of Hama under its control on Friday. These achievements were made possible after the troops seized the town of Khan Shaykhun in southern Idlib and cut off militants of their supply lines.