On Wednesday, the militants from the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” stormed the Jisr Al-Shughour National Hospital for the fifth straight day, where they attempted to break-through the Syrian Arab Army’s frontline defenses at the southern corridor of the facility; this attack was repelled in the late afternoon after withdrawing their fighters.

The Syrian Arab Army’s 87th Brigade from the 11th Tank Division launched a counter-attack at Al-Fawrou in the southern part of the Jisr Al-Shughour District, killing over two dozen armed militants from Jabhat Al-Nusra and their allies from Jaysh Al-Muhajireen and Ajnad Al-Sham before they were able to capture this village near the town of Al-Sirmaniyah.

After capturing Al-Fawrou, the 87th Brigade advanced past Ghaniyah towards Ishtabraq in the Jisr Al-Shughour District, where the latter encountered the militants from Jabhat Al-Nusra and Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham on the main road leading to this village in northwestern Idlib.

Firefights are still ongoing in-between the villages of Ghaniyah and Ishtabraq, as the SAA’s 87th Brigade and the militants from Jabhat Al-Nusra and Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham are fighting for control of this main road in order to expand their influence over this rural area in the Jisr Al-Shughour District.

West of Jisr Al-Shughour, the SAA’s “Tiger Forces” broke-through the frontline defenses of Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham at Tal Kamal and advanced towards the strategic Sugar Factory after fierce clashes at this hill overlooking the western part of the district – clashes are still ongoing at Tal Kamal between the two parties.

At the hill of Tal Al-Layal between Jisr Al-Shughour and Bashlamoun, the militants from Jabhat Al-Nusra and Jaysh Al-Muhajireen attempted breach the National Defense Forces (NDF) fortifications; however, the Islamist militants were unable to bypass the NDF’s defenses, despite outnumbering the Syrian Government Forces.

Since the inception of the battle at Jisr Al-Shughour last week, the Syrian Arab Army and National Defense Forces have lost a combined 92 soldiers, while another 113 others have been confirmed wounded-in-action.

To contrast, the Islamist forces have lost an estimated 350-500 militants during the battle for Jisr Al-Shughour; this estimate includes the 65+ fighters killed during Wednesday’s clashes.

Among the Islamist fighters killed at Jisr Al-Shughour on Wednesday the following were identified: Sameer Nasser, Sa’ad Saleh Sateefi, ‘Ammaar Ahmad Khanissi, Ahmad Mustafa Bajaan, Mou’ataz Mohammad Danouni, Mohammad Moshna Janeed, ‘Ammaar ‘Antar Raslaan, “Abu Al-Leith Al-Yemeni” (Yemeni), “Abu Al-Magheeri Al-Jazrawi” (Saudi), Khattab Al-Ansari, “Abu Sariyah”, “Abu ‘Ammari Al-Ghaab”, “Abu Mohammad Al-Hamwi”, “Abu Yousif Al-Maldeef”, “Abu Dakhaani Al-Jazrawi” (Saudi), “Abu ‘Ubeida Al-Jnoubi”, “Abu Al-Bara’a Al-Ansari”, “Abu Khaled Al-Yemeni” (Yemeni), and Usama Al-Jarha.”

The identified militants that were wounded at Jisr Al-Shughour are the following: “Abu Mohammad Al-Khaani”, “Abu Ahmad Al-Khaani”, “Abu Hamza Al-Faransi” (French), “Abu ‘Ubeida Al-Shaami”, “Abu Al-Nu’man”, “Abu Bilal Al-Hamwi”, “Abu Musa’ab Al-Halabi”, “Abu ‘Umar Al-Hamwi”, and Siraaqah Al-Ansari.