DAMASCUS, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian rebels are preparing to fabricate a chemical attack in areas in Idlib and Aleppo provinces in northern Syria to frame the Syrian army, a military statement said Monday.
The state news agency SANA cited a military statement as saying that the rebels in the western countryside of Aleppo and the countryside of Idlib are preparing to fake a chemical attack to frame the Syrian forces and halt their progress against the rebels in the aforementioned areas.
The statement charged that the rebels are preparing to stage the attack under the Turkish support, noting that such fabrications will not achieve the intended goal of bringing the Syrian military operation to a halt.
The new development comes as the Syrian army has launched a wide-scale offensive in the western countryside of Aleppo and the southern countryside of Idlib with the aim of liberating areas along the road connecting Damascus in the south with Aleppo in the north.
Since the Hama-Aleppo road is under rebel control, people have traveled to Aleppo through another extension of the road.
The army is now prioritizing the recapture of the entire road between Hama and Aleppo, which will enable the travel movement to return to its pre-war time from Damascus in the south to Aleppo in the north without rerouting to other roads.
