1. The SAA planned this and it’s some kind of 5D chess 200 IQ move.

2. The SAA was caught woefully off-guard.

I think it’s the latter. But there is always a lot of hype surrounding these types of offensives at the start, we have to see what happens in the next few weeks and months.

For now, it seems that the Turkish-backed HTS terrorists have managed to overwhelm the Syrian Army due to sheer numbers in terms of manpower. SAA reinforcements need time to organize and prepare.