TUNIS, December 5. /TASS/. The Syrian defense ministry refuted reports of militants, who allegedly entered the city of Hama, the administrative center of an eponymous region in the west of the Arab Republic.
In a statement posted on its Facebook page (Facebook is banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist), the Syrian ministry assured that "the situation in the entire city of Hama is normal and safe."
"Our armed forces are deployed in positions next to the city and at a certain distance from it, in all directions. They are absolutely ready to repel any possible assault," the statement says.
The ministry also reported that Syrian warplanes, with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces and domestic rocket and missile artillery, managed to kill dozens of militants in Hama and destroy their vehicles and military hardware late on Wednesday.
The Syrian province of Hama saw intense clashes between regular army units and militants recently. On Wednesday morning, Syrian troops managed to drive militant groups away from Hama city boundaries, forcing them to retreat to the distance of around 20 km.
On the morning of November 27, units of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) carried out a large-scale attack in northern Syria. According to the Syrian military command, the terrorists tried to attack villages and towns defended by government forces, as well as military facilities and the Syrian army’s positions. Syrian troops launched an operation to repel the attack. On November 30, the army command said that strikes had been carried out on the positions of militants infiltrating many neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo. The Syrian Defense Ministry stated that the army had to regroup in order to protect the lives of civilians and military personnel and prepare for a counterattack.