Tunis, December 7. /TASS/. Syria’s defense ministry has refuted reports about troops withdrawal from the city of Homs in the central part of the country.
"Reports disseminated in some media outlets and resources linked with terrorist organizations about the withdrawal of any units of our armed forces from the city of Homs and its neighborhoods are not true," it said 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 Sham FM radio station reported earlier that militants had infiltrated the cities of al-Rastan and Tell Bisa in Homs’ northern part. It said that Syrian forces had struck militants’ positions in the north of the governorate, wiping out a convoy of terrorists’ combat vehicles. Later, the Syrian defense ministry said that government forces had reinforced their position in Homs and were ready to repel any attack.
Units of the Jabhat al-Nusra extremist group (outlawed in Russia) staged a large-scale attack on Syria’s northern governorates early on November 27. According to the Syrian government army command, the terrorists attempted to seize a number of neighborhoods and military facilities, attacking the positions of government forces. Later, the Syrian army command said that government forces had to retreat from Aleppo to and prepare for a counterattack.
On December 5, the Syrian army command said that militants had infiltrated sever neighborhoods in the city of Hama, the administrative center of the governorate of the same name in western Syria. According to its statement, government forces were redeployed outside the city.