Alongside this, it was reported that for the first time Su-25 attack planes of the Russian Air Force and MiG-29 fighters of the Air Force of the Syrian Arab Republic conducted a joint combat mission.
Since September 2015 and at the request of the Syrian government, Russia launched air operations, currently exceeding six thousand, against positions of the ISIL and other terrorist groups in the central and northern regions.
These actions, officially recognized, allowed the Syrian military to expand and go on an offensive in a geographic arc encompassing southern, central and northern territories.
To the date, over 150 towns and villages have been recovered, and the military gained presence in northern regions such as Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Idleb, in the center, and Daraa and Lattakia, a little further south.
In the latter province, 348 kilometers north of Damascus, the taking of the town of Selma and other strategic points dismantled groups like Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, mostly composed of mercenaries of Chechen and Uighur origin, according to official reports.
