Hundreds of Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists on board dozens of armored trucks with mounted machine guns have tried to breach Syrian army positions in a mass coordinated attack in the Idlib de-escalation zone, the Russian military said.

Two groups of al-Nusra militants numbering up to 200 fighters each attacked Syrian Arab Army (SAA) positions in the Abu al-Duhur and Abu Sharja communities in Idlib, the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria said.

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Jihadists sent a suicide bomber squad to breach SAA defenses in the Abu al-Duhur area, but an anti-tank missile eliminated the explosive-laden car just before the death-mobile could strike the front line of the government forces. Government forces scrambled to repel the charge, but despite their resistance, the terrorists briefly managed to penetrate 1.5 kilometers past the army's defense line before being pushed back by the reinforcements that arrived to counter their intrusion.

Use of chemical agents was paid-for in silver, while taking down a chopper was rewarded with goldhttps://t.co/PYVLCU3dIt — RT (@RT_com) November 16, 2018

The jihadists’ offense near Abu Sharja was even less successful and was thwarted by Syrian troops, who forced the militants to retreat to their original positions, inflicting heavy losses, the statement added.

This is not the first time that Jabhat al-Nusra fighters tried to attack SAA positions following the September agreement between Russia and Turkey which set up a demilitarized buffer zone in Idlib. The deal, which was backed by Germany and France, in theory, should have allowed the so-called ‘moderate’ rebels to take control of the province while getting rid of the radical Islamists. Yet contrary to the agreement, about 70 percent of the zone is still occupied by terrorists, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted last week.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday to discuss developments in Syria, particularly in the post-US military withdrawal period, and the planned Turkish military operation against the Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on its border.

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