It has been almost three years since the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has entered the imperative city of Salma; however, after their recent success in the Latakia Governorate’s northeastern countryside, the SAA – in coordination with the National Defense Forces (NDF) and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) – have broken-through the Islamist rebel defenses and entered the southern district.

On Sunday morning, the Syrian Armed Forces infiltrated past the frontline defenses of the Free Syrian Army’s “Coastal Brigades” and the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” at Salma, taking control of 5 building blocks inside the city after launching this assault from their positions in the recently captured town of Kafr Dalbeh to the southeast.

With the Syrian Arab Army and their allies advancing into Salma, the Islamist rebels of Jabhat Al-Nusra and the Free Syrian Army launched a counter-assault at the Kafr Dalbeh hilltop in order to alleviate the pressure on their stronghold; this resulted in the Islamist rebels recapturing the hilltop after two anti-tank TOW missiles struck a T-55 Tank and a BMP.

However, despite their success at Tal Kafr Dalbeh, the Islamist rebel forces were extremely inaccurate with their TOW missiles, as they fired a dozen missiles and only hit three of their designated targets in the city of Salma.

Adding to the plight of the Islamist rebels, the Russian Air Force conducted 11 airstrikes over Jabal Al-Akrad (Kurdish Mountains) on Sunday, striking a number of sites belonging to the Free Syrian Army and Jabhat Al-Nusra inside the Latakia Governorate’s northeastern countryside.