Asia

Home page

Asia

13 rebels killed in northern Syria

08 August 2014 17:43 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least 13 rebels were killed on Friday when the Syrian troops pounded their positions in the country's northern region of Jisr al-Shughur, according to the state news agency SANA, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The Syrian army forces targeted "terrorists'" positions near the town of Tal al-Dahab in the mountainous region of Jist al- Shughur in Idlib province, said SANA, adding that some of the killed militants were foreigners.

Separately, SANA said the Syrian forces killed tens of " terrorists" at the town of Latamneh in the northern countryside of the central province of Hama.

In the southern province of Daraa, SANA said many armed rebels were killed by the Syrian forces in many areas and streets in that province, which is deemed as the birthplace of the long-standing Syrian crisis.

A day earlier, SANA reported the killing of 200 rebels by the Syrian troops near the capital Damascus.

The latest operations of the Syrian army came at a time when the fighters of the so-called Islamic State (IS) have recently made new strides in their battles against the government troops, mainly in the northern province of al-Raqqa, where the IS has recently stripped the army of two major bases and seemingly has been moving to capture the Tabbaka airbase, the last remaining military position in al-Raqqa, which would leave the whole province completely under the control of the al-Qaida off-shoot.

The IS, previously known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, has recently self-proclaimed an Islamic Caliphate in areas in Syria and Iraq. It has succeeded in capturing most of the oilfields in the oil-rich province of Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria on the borders with Iraq.