Syrian army, allies kill dozens of militants in, round Dayr al-Zawr

Syrian government forces have launched a series of operations against foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants in the country’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, killing and injuring dozens of the extremists.

At least a dozen Daesh terrorists were killed in the Maqabir district of the provincial capital city of Dayr al-Zawr, located 450 kilometers northeast of the capital, Damascus, on Monday as Syrian troops and fighters from allied popular defense groups launched an offensive in the area, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.

Syrian army units also managed to lay siege to separate groups of Takfiri militants in the al-Ma’amel and Soriyeh Juneid regions, killing dozens of the terrorists in heavy clashes that ensued.

Considerable amounts of military hardware and munitions were destroyed in the Syrian army operations as well.

Moreover, Syrian military aircraft bombarded a Daesh command center close to the Albu Awad Mosque in the town of Al-Muhasan, located along the Euphrates River, killing 12 terrorists. There were four high-ranking militant commanders among the slain extremists.

Seven Syrian soldiers, however, lost their lives when Daesh terrorists mounted a surprise attack against their position in Sawaqah School.

Elsewhere, in the northwestern province of Aleppo, Syrian soldiers regained full control over the towns of al-Dar’ia and Khan Hafira in addition to Rasm al-Alam and surrounding farms.

Syrian warplanes also pounded a number of Daesh hideouts in the Kasara al-Bahr area of the strategic and mountainous region of Qalamoun, located about 330 kilometers north of Damascus, and killed scores of militants.

Additionally, Syrian army soldiers engaged militants from the terrorist group of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as the al-Nusra Front, in the al-Farhaniyah and Um Sharshouh villages of the central province of Homs, killing and injuring many of them in the operations.

Jabhat Fateh al-Sham cuts ties with allied terror group

Meanwhile, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militants say they have broken ranks with the Salafist  Jund al-Aqsa terrorist group after the latter engaged in heavy exchanges of gunfire with Ahrar al-Sham Takfiris on the outskirts of Aleppo.

Turkey ‘not to hand over al-Bab to Syrian forces’

In a separate development, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Tuesday that his country’s military forces will not hand over the northern Syrian town of al-Bab to Syrian government forces once an operation against Daesh and Kurdish fighters is over in the town.

Kurtulmus also said the US-led military coalition had not honored its pledge to sufficiently support Turkey’s operation to seize the town.

On August 24, 2016, the Turkish air force and special ground forces kicked off an operation inside Syria in a declared bid to support the Free Syrian Army militants and rid the border area of Daesh terrorists and fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Democratic Union Party (PYD).

The offensive was launched in coordination with the US-led coalition, which has purportedly been fighting Daesh extremists since 2014.

The incursion was the first major Turkish military intervention in Syria, which drew strong condemnation from the Syrian government for violating the Arab country’s sovereignty.

The new remarks by Kurtulmus, the Turkish deputy prime minister, are now likely to further provoke tensions.

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