DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the Armed Forces and Minister of Defense, Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij, stressed on Monday that the Syrian Arab Army has proven to the whole world that it is a strong and well-trained army, and that Syria will remain united.

In an interview with the Syrian TV Channel, Gen. al-Freij said that the Israeli enemy instructed the armed terrorist groups to attack Syria's air defenses because the Israeli enemy knows that Syria has air defenses that cover the whole country and prevent its aircrafts from carrying out any violation without the knowledge of the Syrian Army.

He added that when the General Command of the Army viewed that the air defenses are being greatly focused on, a decision was made to deploy them in safe places that the armed terrorist groups will not be able to attack them with mortar shells.

Gen. al-Freij asserted that the Israeli attack on the scientific research center in Jamraya in Damascus Countryside was carried out in coordination between the Israeli enemy and the armed terrorist groups after it was attacked several times by these groups to seize it and destroy it.

He pointed out that the failure of the armed terrorist groups to attack this center pushed Israel to intervene and carry out the attack through its warplanes to respond to the heavy losses inflicted upon its tools.

Concerning Taftanaz Airport, Gen. al-Freij said that the airport is located near the Turkish borders, and it is for helicopters only, adding that it hosts a number of broken-down helicopters, and its staff are technicians who are not prepared to fight under such circumstances.

He noted that when the armed terrorist groups exerted heavy pressure on the airport for months, the General Command decided that it is not necessary that members of the airport staff remain in it, so its equipment was transferred while the broken-down equipment was left.

As for al-Bukamal agricultural airport, the Defense Minister noted that the airport includes agricultural aircrafts and it does not host any warplanes or helicopters, so the airport is not important as it is an empty land.

Regarding al-Yarmouk Camp, Gen. al-Freij said that the Syrian Arab Army did not enter the area at all. The armed terrorist groups, instructed by Israel, planned to enter the area to embarrass Syria and expose the Syrian Army as entering the area to attack the Palestinians.

He added that the armed terrorist groups are targeting the infrastructure of the state, including hospitals, schools and factories which means that they are targeting the Syrians in the first place.

The Minister emphasized that the Armed Forces will exert all efforts possible to protect the economic and service institutions and deliver supplies to all citizens who are invited to cooperate with the army through informing the army units about the dens of the terrorists.

He added that the main task of the Armed Forces is protecting the borders and confronting the Zionist entity which is occupying Syrian land, but when large numbers of terrorists were recruited to carry out the conspiracy against Syria, the Armed Forces' duty was to pursue the terrorists.

The Minister concluded that the failure of the plan to subvert Syria from the outside pushed the conspirators to try to subvert it from inside, so the U.S., Western and Zionist administrations planned for that and the Arab regimes, unfortunately, funded their plans, whereas the tools were the armed groups that they brought from outside Syria which hold the Takfiri thought and Jabhat al-Nusra on top.

F.L