Syrian army regains control of strategic towns in Hama

The Syrian army made major advances in Hama countryside in the Central parts of the country and regained control of strategic towns in there. The army units took control of Al-Jadideh, Al-Malh and Al-Jamileh towns in Mohrad-Salibieh road in Northwestern Hama countryside. Hama province in Central Syria has a population of over 2 million people and it has been the scene of fierce clashes between the Syrian army and militants in the past three years. Also in the past 24 hours, more than 4 notorious Al-Qaeda ringleaders were killed in fierce clashes between the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front. Meantime, Sami al-Aridi, one of the ringleaders of the terrorist Al-Nusra Front in Syria, raised fraud accusations against Ahmad Jarba, the president of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), saying he has stolen millions of dollars of international aids. Writing on his Twitter page, Aridi said that Jarba had stolen $75mln of the international aids which were due to be allocated to the treatment of the wounded and refugee Syrians. Also earlier this year, founder of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) Riyadh Al-Asa'ad claimed that head of the Syrian opposition bloc Ahmad al-Jarba is a spy. Al-Asa'ad's accusation came as the rifts among the Syrian opposition are further widening. Divisions among the foreign-based Syrian opposition have widened after Idris was replaced by Abdullah al-Bashir. Idris along with more than a dozen senior militant commanders have severed ties with the SNC, widening divisions among the foreign-sponsored opposition. The military wing of the opposition said it has sacked its chief of staff due to difficulties in the operations against the Syrian government. The anti-Syria military coalition was established in 2011. But it has never been able to attract people in the war-torn country. Also, a military source said that a unit of the Syrian army has killed 20 terrorists in Morek in Hama's Northern countryside on Sunday. Terrorists Alaa Ibrahim Al-Hamid Al-Eliwi, Mohammad Abdul-Mo'ti Al-Ghazal and Hassan Abdul-Karim Al-Na'ssan were identified among the dead, the state news agency reported. Also in Aleppo, an army unit eliminated all members of an armed terrorist group in the last of Nazlet Al-Zebdieh in Seif Al-Doula and fully controlled a number of buildings there. Meantime, the United Nation's top humanitarian field operations official said more than 9 million Syrians had been displaced by the country's conflict. "Some 6.5 million of the displaced people are still inside Syria, while 2.7 million have fled to nearby countries," John Ging said, warning that those numbers were likely to grow. "Month-after-month, it's 5,000 people that are being killed in this crisis. Hundreds of thousands have been injured in this crisis, and again with the intensification of the conflict, these numbers are growing all the time," he said. Army units pounded Saturday terrorist groups' gatherings and dens in various areas across the country, inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists' ranks in lives and equipment. Terrorists of Chechen and Turkish nationalities were killed in army operations that targeted terrorist groups' gatherings in various areas in Damascus Countryside. Army units killed all members of several armed terrorist groups in Al-Mleiha farms and Ein Tarma valley in Eastern Ghouta and destroyed all their weapons. Qaderi Al-Sheikh Baker from Chechnya and Lawrence Al-Bashqati from Turkey were identified among the dead, in addition to Abdulrahman Al-Zarqawi and Ammar Al-Tout. The army intensified operations on Joubar axis from the eastern side and destroyed several terrorists' dens, leaving a number of them dead and wounded. Emad Matar and Mohammad Omar Juha were among the dead. Meantime, Syria's Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) announced the final list of presidential contenders. The SCC Spokesman announced that the final list of the country's approved candidates for its upcoming presidential election came down to three individuals: Bashar Hafez Al-Assad, Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar and Hassan Abdullah Al-Nouri. The final list of candidates was announced in a Saturday press conference by SCC Spokesperson Majid Khadra, who further added that "the announcement also serves as an official notification to the respective presidential contenders to begin their election campaign as of Sunday, May 11, 2014".