Russian Army Destroys Militant Caves Near Tramla in Syria's Idlib - Military

HAMA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2021) Russian army engineers have destroyed a system of artificial caves near the village of Tramla in northwest Syria that was abandoned by militants of the Hayat Tahrir al Sham terrorist group (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia) as they fled from the Syrian army, Roman Bessmertny, the head of engineering troops of the Russian armed forces group in Syria, said.

"We are destroying these caves by means of explosions so that they can no longer be used. In the future, we will search this area to discover other caves. There are a lot of them in this area, and we will destroy all of them," Bessmertny told reporters on Tuesday.

According to Bessmertniy, the system comprises five caves with separate entrances.

They are located near the village of Tramla, which was in the hands of militants for several years. The militants began to create caves back in 2012. In February 2020, they left the area when the Syrian army attacked.

The biggest cave included several huge spaces with a ceiling height of over six feet connected by tunnels. The militants used the caves as accommodation, a small warehouse and a field hospital.

Another large cave was used as a prison. The cave system also included an underground pickup shelter with two entrances where multiple vehicles could be parked, and a separate shelter for a field commander. The fifth cave was deserted before completion.