The northwestern Syria campaign (October 2017 – February 2018) was a large-scale military operation that initially started with an offensive conducted by the Islamic State (IS) forces on areas controlled by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the northern Hama Governorate. Subsequently, the Syrian Arab Armed Forces launched their own offensive against HTS and other rebel groups in the area. The campaign took place at the intersection of the provinces of Hama, Idlib and Aleppo.
The offensive
ISIL and Army advances
On 9 October 2017, ISIL attacked HTS in the northeastern Hama countryside near the southern administrative border of the Idlib Governorate. ISIL members that attacked HTS allegedly sneaked into northern Hama from the area east of Salamiyah where they had been besieged by the Syrian Army in a pocket centered around Uqayribat. An opposition activist accused Syrian government forces of opening a 13-kilometer gap for ISIL militants to enter HTS territory. ISIL captured more than a dozen villages, including Rahjan, before HTS launched a counter-attack and recaptured five villages. Over the next two weeks, fighting continued, with HTS managing to recapture 11 more villages, including Rahjan.
Starting on 22 October, government forces conducted heavy air-strikes against HTS positions in the area and on 24 October, a ground assault was launched from the direction of Ithriya. The Syrian Army took advantage of the fighting between HTS and ISIL, quickly seizing several areas from the latter. The ultimate aim of the government offensive was reported to be either the rebel-held Abu al-Duhur Military Airbase in the eastern part of the Idlib Governorate or to simply push out HTS from that part of Hama's countryside into Idlib. The same day as the Army's ground offensive started, an ISIL infiltration attempt against HTS lines was repelled. As the Army offensive was developing, clashes continued between HTS and ISIL, while it was reported that fighting between the Army and ISIL had stopped as of 26 October. By 28 October, more than 350 air-strikes had been conducted and the military managed to capture between six and ten villages from both HTS and ISIL, with ISIL confined to just five villages. During the night between 27 and 28 October, elements of the 3rd and 4th Division of the Syrian Army were approaching to Rahjan.
On 30 October, heavy fighting was taking place as both the Syrian Army and ISIL were attempting to make advances against HTS, while HTS was attempting to advance against the other two. Between 31 October and 1 November, the Army seized between five and seven villages from HTS. Meanwhile, HTS reportedly seized two villages from ISIL, forcing ISIL to retreat to its three remaining villages in the area.
On 2 November, the Army launched an assault on a different axis, attacking and capturing four villages, including the rebel stronghold of Al-Rashadiyah, in the southern countryside of Aleppo. However, the following day, HTS counter-attacked and recaptured the territory they had lost, including Al-Rashadiyah.
On 3 November, the Republican Guard and Qalamoun Shield stormed the HTS-held village of Al-Shakusiyah, eventually capturing it after hours of fighting, although they suffered heavy casualties as HTS and the FSA's Central Division used anti-tank missiles and artillery fire. The capture of the village brought the Syrian Army to the eastern outskirts of Rahjan. Between 4 and 7 November, government forces reportedly captured five more villages. On 8 November, HTS captured a hill overlooking the remaining three villages held by ISIL.
On 13 November, government forces opened a new axis of advance and captured nine villages over the next two days. Meanwhile, between 14 and 16 November, the village of Sarha changed hands three times before ultimately coming under Army control. The military also seized the nearby village of Qasr Ali.
On 21 November, under the cover of bad weather, ISIL forces attacked from their small pocket HTS positions and managed to capture four villages. Concurrently, an ISIL suicide car bomber also blew himself up in Rahjan. ISIL continued its advances the following day, capturing another nine villages. Meanwhile, the Army launched its finale phase of the offensive, advancing to positions just several hundred meters from Rahjan. At the same time, the military also attacked and captured a village and a nearby hilltop in the southern countryside of Aleppo. By this point, the military captured 29 villages in the Hama countryside during the offensive.
On 24 November, ISIL advances continued with the capture of five more villages from HTS. Four days later, an HTS counter-attack recaptured two villages from ISIL. Meanwhile, after 28 days of back-and-forth fighting, the Army captured a strategic hilltop in the southern countryside of Aleppo, which lead to the capture of the nearby town of Al-Rashadiyah. The Army then pushed out of Al-Rashadiyah, capturing four more nearby villages from the rebels and advancing to within 20 kilometers of the Abu al-Duhur Military Airbase. Government forces also made further advances in the Hama countryside. A subsequent rebel counter-attack recaptured two villages in the Aleppo countryside, although it was later reported that the Army had once again seized one of them and was fighting for the second.
Between 3 and 5 December, the Army made three attempts to capture Rahjan, each time managing to enter the town before being pushed back.
ISIL/Army Push into southeastern Idlib
Concurrently, on 3 December, the Syrian Army decided to circumvent the fortified HTS-held village of Balil, instead advancing to the east of it, resulting in the capture of three villages and localities in south-eastern Idlib Governorate, thus flanking Balil from south-west and north-east. Meanwhile, on 5 December, ISIL started making new advances against the rebels, coming to within 10 km of Idlib Governorate's administrative boundaries and capturing eight villages by the following day. ISIL finally reached the Idlib Governorate on 9 December, overrunning three villages and a hilltop with little resistance. Still, on 10 December, the rebels managed to push back ISIL forces out of Idlib. Meanwhile, government forces made some notable progress in Idlib province as well, capturing half a dozen villages between 9 and 10 December. After three days of intense fighting, ISIL fighters captured the village of Rasm Hammam from HTS on 12 December. This stage of the fighting saw major displacement of civilians; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported on 4 January that more than 60,000 people had fled their homes in Hama and Idlib between 1 November and 24 December.
Fighting in southwestern Aleppo
Mid-December, much of the fighting between pro-government forces and rebels had moved to southwestern Aleppo, with the Syrian Army reportedly capturing four villages and two hills from HTS between 14 and 19 December. An attempt by the Army to capture the village of Al-Ramleh (in the southeastern countryside of the Aleppo Governorate, according to reports) on 20 December was repelled, with HTS nearly encircling government troops. Six were killed and eight captured.
Army push towards Abu al-Duhur
A renewed offensive by pro-government forces began in December, with its main target the rebel-held air base of Abu al-Duhur on the southeastern edge of Idlib and securing the road linking Damascus to Aleppo. According to Reuters, government forces are assisted by Iranian-backed militias and Hezbollah in the offensive. The government and its allies took the Idlib village of a-Ruwaydah on 19 December, and conducted two airstrikes on a residential area in the town of Maar Shurin 40 km to the northwest on 20 December, reportedly killing at least 18 civilians including 10 children.
Five villages were recaptured by HTS from ISIL during a counter-attack on 20 December, including Rasm Hammam, though not long afterwards ISIL seized Rasm Hammam once again. During 26 December, the Syrian Army captured an Air Defense Battalion base (Zawr as Sus) and the hilltop of Tell al-Aswad. The same day, HTS shot down a Syrian Arab Air Forces L-39 Albatross using a Strela-2 MANPADS, capturing the pilot and later executing him.
Intense Russian airstrikes were reported on 28–29 December, alongside heavy fighting concentrated in the key village of Abu Dali in southern Idlib. The Syrian Army reported a breakthrough against rebel forces on 28 December, capturing three villages, including Mushayrifah, and later in the day entered Abu Dali, which they said had been abandoned by rebel fighters. On 29 December, Hamadaniyeh, south-west of Abu Dali, was captured by the Syrian Army led by Tiger Forces. After two failed attempts, a rebel stronghold with multiple entrenchments, Atshan, was captured on 30 December by the Tiger Forces. Later, together with 4th Division soldiers, they took the villages of Abu Omar, Al-Saloumyah and Al-Jadouyah.
Umm Elkhalayel, Niha, Hawa, Ard az-Zurzur, Mashraft al-Jouaan, Dreibiyeh, Umm Sehrij were amongst a dozen of settlements captured by the Syrian Army between 1 and 3 January 2018. This period also saw what an aid worker described as a "systematic" attack on hospitals in the region by pro-government forces, with eight hit between the end of December and the beginning of January, allegedly including a major maternity hospital in Maarat al Numan, killing five people and injuring scores, according to pro-rebel Syrian American Medical Society. According to UN figures, more than 70,000 people had fled their homes and moved further into Idlib in recent weeks.
In the morning of 4 January 4 villages in Idlib where captured. Fourteen more settlements were captured by Syrian Army on 5 January after clashes with fighters of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham and Jaysh al-Izza. During the same day ISIL militants captured two villages from other rebel groups. The villages of Al-Nasiriya, Lweibdeh Sharki and Lweibdeh Shamaliyah were captured by the Syrian Army during night raid going on into the early hours of 6 January. Further into 6 January, three rural settlements, including Sheikh Barakeh, were captured, in resulting the Syrian Army reaching the outskirts of the key crossroad town of Sinjar. Two more villages were captured in the afternoon. In the morning of 7 January, three additional villages were taken. Numerous localities were taken throughout the day by the Syrian Army, including Sinjar itself. The same day, a rocket attack targeted a Turkish military convoy in Idlib, the rocket landing 20–30 meters from the convoy in Darat Izza district, and in the night Russian and government airstrikes killed at least 21 civilians in Idlib. On 8 January, the Syrian Army captured 14 villages, and dozens of airstrikes were reported by Idlib Civil Defense to have resulted in at least 14 deaths. On 9 January, the Syrian Army captured 15 towns and villages including Rahjan. On 10 January, the Syrian Army captured 25 towns and villages including Tell Silmo, Zafar Saghir, Zafar al-Kabir and Rasm Abed in Idlib governorate, thus reaching the outskirts of Abu al-Duhur Military Airbase. Within Hama governorate, the last HTS stronghold of Um Myal has been captured. This left the HTS-controlled area in the countryside where Hama District borders Idlib and Aleppo governorates almost completely isolated from the larger rebel area centred in Idlib, and also still under pressure from the remaining ISIL pocket on its western edge.