The battle for Ghammam in northern Latakia has been a long and bloody fight between the Islamist rebels and the Syrian Armed Forces as this strategic town inside the Turkmen Mountains has exchanged hands between the two opposing parties at least four times since the Syrian Arab Army’s 103rd Brigade of the Republican Guard launched an offensive to capture it in early October.

Over the weekend, the Islamist rebels from the Free Syrian Army’s “1st Coastal Brigade” and the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” launched a counter-attack to reclaim this imperative town that was captured by the Syrian Arab Army’s 103rd Brigade and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSPN) last week.

With the recent transfer of the Syrian Arab Army’s 103rd Brigade to Jabal Al-Akrad (Kurdish Mountains) in northeastern Latakia, the Islamist rebels from Jabhat Al-Nusra and the Free Syrian Army took this opportunity to recapture the town; however, this assault proved costly for the aforementioned Islamists as they lost over 50 combatants and failed to capture Ghammam.

Following this failed military endeavor for the Islamist rebels, the SAA’s 103rd Brigade sent reinforcements to counter Jabhat Al-Nusra’s assault and recapture the Ghammam Water Pump Facility and Tal Al-Yakdash in Ghammam’s northern countryside.

This counter-assault proved successful for the Syrian Armed Forces as they recaptured the Ghammam Water Pump Facility and the imperative hilltop at Tal Al-Yakdash, paving the way for the Republican Guard to enter the village of Deir Hanna for the first time since 2012.

According to a battlefield journalist that is entrenched with the soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army’s 103rd Brigade, the Syrian Armed Forces have pushed their way inside of Deir Hanna, but they have yet to capture this village.