A Syrian government soldier walks past strewn mortar shells in the village of Qalaat al-Madiq, some 45 kilometres northwest of the central city of Hama, on May 17, 2019. - Syrian government forces a week prior had recaptured the northwestern town on the southwestern edge of the jihadist-controlled Idlib region, from around which jihadists and allied rebels were launching rockets on their Russian ally's key airbase. The capture of the town of Qalaat al-Madiq comes after weeks of intensified air strikes and s

Ex-FSA fighters recruited by Damascus to fight opposition in northern Syria

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A Syrian government soldier walks past strewn mortar shells in the village of Qalaat al-Madiq, some 45 kilometres northwest of the central city of Hama, on May 17, 2019. - Syrian government forces a week prior had recaptured the northwestern town on the southwestern edge of the jihadist-controlled Idlib region, from around which jihadists and allied rebels were launching rockets on their Russian ally's key airbase. The capture of the town of Qalaat al-Madiq comes after weeks of intensified air strikes and s

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