Chief of the General Staff of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces, Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayoub said the Russian intervention had weakened the Takfiri group, ISIL, and other armed terrorist groups.

Chief of the General Staff of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces, Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayoub said the Russian intervention had weakened the Takfiri group, ISIL, and other armed terrorist groups.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Ayoub announced a vast offensive to defeat the terrorist groups and restore army control over areas held by insurgents.

“Today the Syrian armed forces started a wide- scale attack aiming at uprooting terrorists’ gatherings and liberating the areas and towns which have been suffering of the woes and crimes of terrorism”.

Russian air strikes had helped "weaken the fighting capabilities of Daesh and other terrorist groups," General Ayoub said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.
Quoted by Syrian state television, Ayoub said the strikes had helped Syria's armed forces "maintain the military initiative".

SANA quoted a military source as saying that Russian air force, in cooperation with the Syrian Air Force, conducted a series of precise air strikes against a number of ISIL terrorists’ targets in Anadan, al-Atareb, Deir Hafer, west of Mansoura and al-Bab city, in the countryside of Aleppo province, which resulted in the killing of hundreds of terrorists, destroying tens of armored vehicles, two Grad rocket launchers and a big ammunition depot.

Moscow launched its military operation against ISIL terrorists at the request of the Syrian government on September 30. Since the start of the operation, the Russian military have destroyed at least 112 objects belonging to Takfiris.