The terrorists’ gathering centers in the town of Jarjanaz were targeted with missiles after they launched an attack army ‘posts in the buffer zone, SANA news agency reported, citing military sources.
The report added that a large number of the militants were killed and injured in the counterattack.
The terrorists had moved from the direction of Ma’arkiba town towards military posts in al-Zalaqyiat and Zalyin, the report added.
The town, where the clashes broke out, is located in a planned buffer zone, which surrounds Idlib and also parts of the adjacent provinces of Aleppo and Hama.
Under a deal reached following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in September, all militants should have withdrawn from the demilitarization zone by October 15.
However, al-Qaeda-linked Takfiri terrorists said they refuse to either leave the buffer zone or hand over their weapons.
Moscow believed that the 15-20 kilometer buffer zone would help stop attacks from Idlib-based militants on Syrian army positions and Russia's military bases in the flashpoint region.
Idlib and some surrounding areas are the last major bastions of Takfiri terrorists and anti-government militants in Syria, where the Syrian government has in recent months retaken much of the territory it had lost since the conflict erupted in the country in 2011.