Battle of As-Safira
The Battle of As-Safira occurred in As-Safira on December 6, 2017 when around six men loyal to Assad attacked a group of Tahrir al-Sham militants, the attack killed 36 people including the six men who perpetrated the assault.
Background
In October 2017, around 700 soldiers were deployed to As-Safira after being told that Tahrir al-Sham leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani was hiding in Al-Bab and to stop and kill anyone who travels from there, especially in large numbers. This led to dozens of deaths of people, including civilians fleeing from Al-Bab to As-Safira. This myth came after a rumor suggesting that Turkey was providing a safe haven for him, but this theory was not believed by many Syrian military leaders, who believed he was hiding in Idlib, which is why they concentrated thousands of soldiers to the Idlib Governorate to take the city instead of the already secured city of Aleppo.
Conflict
On December 6th, a convoy of around 53 Syrians and 3 Turks shouting Takbir and flying flags of Jihad were located by the Syrian Military Intelligence as crossing from Al-Bab to As-Safira to ultimately reach Idlib. The caravan was only armed with one Rocket-propelled grenade and was mostly filled with flags and Qurans, with people wearing Islamic clothing. They appeared to be going to get armed and fight in Idlib, not in Al-Bab or As-Safira, and they did not expect any Syrian Army offensive there, but rather just sneaking into Idlib without notice. However, they were confronted by six soldiers who hid in the mountains armed with AK-47s. Each fired on the caravan unexpectedly, and since the group were traveling in small numbers, they were easily killed off in large numbers, with around half of them dead. The other 25 men who were still alive fired their Rocket-propelled grenade at the soldiers, who were close together and died from the same reason. The other 25 men escaped to Idlib and told Tahrir al-Sham of the incident.
International Responses
On December 11, 2017, the Eagles of the Whirlwind would claim responsibility, after which, only the day later, it received fame and controversy. Before that, it was just a presumed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant attack and ignored, with only locals living in Aleppo Governorate and Idlib Governorate knowing about the attack. But after the Eagles of the Whirlwind claimed responsibility, it received coverage by major news outlets and gained millions of views internationally, because the story was very different from the conventionally seen way of the war. Some Russians even decided it would be a good movie, but this was cancelled after the international backlash the attack gained at first.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagles_of_the_Whirlwind#Battle_of_As-Safira https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Social_Nationalist_Party#SSNP_in_Turkey_&_the_As-Safira_Incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As-Safira#The_As-Safira_Incident_or_the_As-Safira_Massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Al-Safira_offensive#Battle_of_Al-Safira_(6_December_2017) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahrir_al-Sham https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:New_user_landing_page&page=Battle+of+As-Safira+%286+December+2017%29
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