Russia to eliminate Jabhat al-Nusra next year

An effort to eliminate members of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group in Syria will be completed in 2018, the chief of the Russian General Staff, Army Gen. Valery Gerasimov, said.

Gerasimov said that next year’s developments in Syria will include "the completion of eliminating militants from Jabhat al-Nusra and its affiliates."

"Some members of this terrorist organization operate in de-escalation zones. Jabhat al-Nusra fiercely opposes [the ceasefire]. Therefore, they must be eliminated," he said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.

The chief of the Russian General Staff stressed that the biggest Jabhat al-Nusra groups operate in Syria’s Idlib governorate.

According to Gerasimov, the main forces of the ISIS fled to Libya and southwestern Asia after being defeated in Syria. "Some of them return to countries, from which they illegally arrived. The bulk of them flees to Libya, to southwestern Asian countries," the official said, adding that certain groups of terrorists flee to Afghanistan, where "conditions are favorable for them."