In a matter of 12 hours, the Al-Qaeda linked “Al-Nusra Front” (Jabhat Al-Nusra) was able to recapture the village of Hardatineen after almost 300 fighters from the National Defense Forces (NDF) withdrew east to Bashkawi.
The capture of Hardatineen by the Al-Nusra Front creates a larger buffer for their militants besieging the predominately Shi’i villages of Al-Zahra and Nubl, while also inching them closer to their cutoff supply route in Bashkawi.
Despite claims that the Al-Nusra Front captured Mazra’a Al-Malaah, the Al-Mayadeen field reporter Khaled Iskef reports that only 2 out of 48 of the farms are under the militants control; furthermore, some 2 hours after this confirmation, the NDF captured Mazra’a Al-Wasita in Al-Malaah.