Over 90% of Syrian territory free from Daesh: Russian daily

As the Syrian army and its allies continue their advances against Takfiri militants, a Russian daily affiliated with the country's defense minister says more than 90 percent of Syrian territory are free from the control of the Daesh terrorists.

A total of 92 percent of Syria's land is now retaken from the control of Daesh terrorists, according to information published in Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper on Thursday.

The daily further said that Russian fighter jets conducted 517 sorties in the past week, destroying 1,260 Daesh targets.

Meanwhile, Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian military's General Staff said on Friday that Russian jets hit 993 Daesh targets in the area of Dayr al-Zawr alone in 383 sorties over the past week.

He also noted that the area under the control of Daesh has shrunk to 14,800 square kilometers (5,714 square miles), or less than 8 percent of Syrian territory.

Rudskoi further said that the Syrian troops have been successfully developing its offensive on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.

He also noted that Daesh counter-attacks involving over 1,000 terrorists who moved from Iraq have been thwarted.

Rudskoi added that the Syrian forces are working to purge the troubled city of Mayadin in Dayr al-Zawr of the Takfiri militants.

Earlier, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that the government forces pushed deeper into Mayadin as they are joined by allied fighters from popular defense groups.

Read more:

• Syrian forces advance on Daesh-controlled Dayr al-Zawr

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.

Russia has been conducting air raids against the positions of Daesh Takfiri terrorists and other groups in the country upon the Damascus government’s request since September 2015.

Daesh attack kills at least 18 in Hasakah

Separately, at least 18 people were killed in a truck-bomb explosion by the Daesh terrorists late Thursday.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday that those lost their lives in the blast that rocked Abu Fas, in the northeastern Hasakah province included civilians displaced by fighting in eastern Syria as well as Kurdish fighters.

Another pro-opposition group in the province reported a much higher toll, saying three car bombs struck Abu Fas.

The civilians killed in the explosion were reportedly fleeing the fighting in the neighboring Dayr al-Zawr province, where Syrian government forces and US-backed Kurdish fighters are waging separate offensives against Daesh in one of its last remaining strongholds.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Daesh overran large parts of Dayr al-Zawr province, including its many oil fields, in mid-2014 as it seized swathes of land in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

By early 2015, the Takfiri terrorists were in control of some parts of the city of Dayr al-Zawr and besieged the remaining parts, which were under government control. It is estimated that 100,000 people remain in the government-held parts of the city.

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