[38] The next day, Russian air strikes killed Basil Zamo, the commander of the rebel 1st Coastal Division, along with four other fighters according to one report.
[41][42][43][44] Two days later, government forces captured three villages in the area[45] and on 6 November took control of Ghamam and Jabal Bakdash hill overlooking it.
[52][53][54][55][56][57] Between 18 and 23 November, government forces captured 10 hills (including six in the Jeb al-Ahmar area),[58][59][60][61] three villages[62][63][64] and imposed full control over the Al-Zahi Mountains.
[64] On 24 November, rebels retook the Al-Zahi Mountains[65] and Tal al-Etyra,[66] while government forces captured a village and hilltop on Jabal Sheikh Mohammad.
[73] The Syrian Army's intense artillery bombardment with hundreds of rockets killed 15 fighters of the Turkistan Islamic Party along with its military leader in Jabal Turkman.
[99][100] Between 25 December and 10 January, government forces imposed full control over two dozen more villages and hills,[101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113] including the Katf Al-Alamah area.
[138][139][140][141][142][143] On 1 February, the rebels recaptured Nawarah (Kelez), near the Turkish border, after government forces had completely withdrawn from the village and its surrounding hills.
Meanwhile, east of Jabal al-Turkman (Turkmen Mountains), government forces continued to advance north towards the rebel stronghold of Kinsabba.
[144] On 3 February, a Russian military advisor training Syrian soldiers in the use of "new weapons" was killed by rebel mortar shelling in Salma.
[147] The attack was heavily assisted by Russian airstrikes which targeted Al-Nusra Front and FSA 1st Coastal Brigade defenses.
[148][149] On 9 February, the Saudi national and senior Al-Nusra Front commander of the Kurdish Mountains, Abdel-Aziz Al-Dibaykhi (nom de guerre "Abu Hamza") was killed by the Republican Guard's 103rd Brigade.
[156] The attack on Kinsabba started on 17 February,[157] quickly capturing three villages on its western flank and leaving one road open for the rebels to retreat.
Following this advance, the next aim of the Army was the village of Kabani, one of the highest points in Jabal al-Akrad, that overlooks the Al-Ghaab Plains, and from where the rebels still had the ability to shell places like Qardaha.
[171] Al-Nusra-led rebels launched an assault in mid-April 2016, capturing parts of Jabal al-Qalat (Qalat Mountain) and al-Bayda village.
[174][175][176] In the course of the fighting, a prominent al-Nusra Front commander was killed: Abu Shakkar, nicknamed "The Cannibal" because he ate the heart of a Syrian soldier.
[181][182] On 30 May, the Army captured the Tall Haddadeh hilltop, which overlooks the Turkish border and remaining rebel-held villages in northern Latakia.
[183] At the end of June, the al-Nusra-led Army of Conquest, supported by FSA groups, launched a counter-offensive on the Turkman and Kurd Mountains, capturing several villages before they withdrew under Russian airstrikes.
[194] According to analysis by pro-opposition Al Jazeera, the objective of the Latakia offensive was to consolidate a potential Alawi dominated state (supported by Russia) that would extend from the Coast to Damascus, passing by Hama and Homs.
The source attributes the advance by government troops to the powerful missiles used by the Russian airforce and to the lack of support from rebels in Idlib and Hama governorates.