Musab Al-Ashkar, Baladi News, Countryside of Hama
The arrival of the rebels to the banks of Orontes River forced the Syrian regime to ease the pace of its bombing on the liberated areas of that region as they have become a source of real concern and panic to the regime and his supporters.
The regime's appeasement was due to its fear of the rebel's response and their bombardment on its areas which are close to the agricultural lands or within them, especially that there are vast areas of agricultural lands within the regions under its control which, if bombarded, will be significantly damaged leading to huge material losses.
The commander in "Jound Al-Huda" brigade of Al-Naser Army, Rajab Halil said in an interview with Baladi News: "the arrival of the rebels to the banks of Orontes River forced the Syrian regime to reduce its bombardment because the agricultural lands of the regime-held villages are located in the distance covered by the rebels".
"Regime forces will return to bombard the liberated villages and towns following the harvest in the areas under their control, while we will continue to attack the enemies' areas to force them to stop bombing the civilians in the villages and towns of Al-Ghab plain", he added.
Meanwhile, the head of the civil defense center in the town of Qastun, Samer Nassar: "Regime forces burned four thousand hectares of wheat within the liberated areas last year, adding that last year had witnessed deliberate fires by the regime through bombarding the agricultural lands in the town of Al-Ziyara".
On the other hand, Mahmoud, a farmer, told Baladi News that his loss along with his relatives' was huge last year as flames burst into their field due to artillery shells by the regime, but the current situation is much better and he hopes for a good harvest of wheat that meet their needs. However, they still fear of repeating last year's bombing scenario and the burning of the crops again.
It should be noted that the quantity of the wheat crop in Al-Ghab plain witnessed a significant decline last year due to the bombardment by regime forces on agricultural lands in the harvest season causing the burning of the crops before being harvested.
In spite of the farmers' fear of bombing and burning of fields again, they are still proud of what the rebels did by forcing the regime forces to reduce their airstrikes, which allowed them to harvest their crops before the return of the shelling.