Two weeks ago, the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division and Hezbollah abruptly halted their large-scale offensive in southern Aleppo, stopping just short of the ICARDA Farms and the Idlib Governorate’s northern border.

Once the Syrian Armed Forces and Lebanese Resistance halted their large-scale offensive, the Islamist rebels from Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, Harakat Nouriddeen Al-Zinki, Jaysh Al-Islam, Faylaq Al-Sham, Liwaa Suqour Al-Sham and the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” took the opportunity to launch a counter assault in order to recapture the strategic towns of Tal Al-‘Eiss and Al-Hadher; however, their success was limited to minimal gains at the Kafr Haddad front.

With the Islamist rebels unable to recover the strategic towns or Tal Al-‘Eiss and Al-Hadher, the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division returned from a short leave with a surprise for their enemies.

For the first time in this war, the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division has deployed their new T-90 Tanks to the southern Aleppo front in order to continue their push to the predominately Shi’i towns of Kafraya and Al-Fou’aa.

The T-90 Tank offers the Syrian Arab Army several features their T-55 and T-72 Tanks do not, including a 2A46M 125 smoothbore tank gun; a four-stroke V-12 piston engine; and most importantly, the Kontakt-5 ERA (explosive reactive armor).

Much of the success the Islamist rebels have experienced in northern Syria has come from their U.S. manufactured anti-tank TOW missile; however, with the Kontakt-5 ERA, the T-90 Tanks should be strong enough to endure the impact from the TOW missile.