Syria in Last 24 Hours: Army Lays Siege on Terrorists in Eastern Ghouta

The Syrian army continued its advances in Eastern Ghouta in Damascus countryside and prevented the foreign-backed terrorists from fleeing after laying a tight siege on several towns in the region.
The army units besieged the terrorists in Housh Nasri, Housh al-Fara and Bezina towns in Eastern Ghouta, killing tens of them in heavy clashes.

Also in the past 24 hours, a large number of Al-Nusra Front militants were killed and injured during clashes with the Syrian troops in the country’s Southern province of Daraa and Northwestern province of Idlib.

Tens of militants were killed in the town of Sheikh Misken in Daraa on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Al-Nusra Front and like-minded groups unleashed an offensive last week to recapture the government troops’ positions in the Sheikh Misken area, but the Syrian troops shelled the Nusra positions and secured the Eastern part of Sheikh Misken on Wednesday amid ongoing intense battles there.

Meanwhile, the Syrian troops clashed with “terrorist” groups in different parts of Daraa on Thursday, killing many rebel fighters.

In the Northwestern province of Idlib, the Syrian troops killed 15 rebels and injured tens of others, many of whom were Arab nationals.

Elsewhere, the Syrian troops recaptured a key gas field in the Central province of Homs after battles with the ISIL terrorists.

The Syrian troops recaptured the al-Shaer gas field and the surrounding hills on Thursday a week after the ISIL fighters captured that strategic site alongside other gas wells from the government troops in the Eastern countryside of Homs.

A day earlier, the army units recaptured the al-Muher and Hajjar gas fields in Eastern countryside of Homs, said the agency, adding that the troops killed 20 militants near the Hayan gas field in the Eastern part of Homs.

The recaptured gas fields are important as they feed the city of Homs and the capital Damascus with the necessary gas for generating electricity in both provinces and the Southern Syrian areas in general.

Meantime, Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari announced that the terrorists of the ISIL group launched a chemical attack on the Syrian city of Kobani.

Bashar Jaafari urged the UN to pay attention to all cases of the use of chemical agents by the Takfiris.

The ISIL attacked the city with shells filled with an incendiary chemical agent, causing civilian casualties, the diplomat said. He added that he already had sent a letter on behalf of the Syrian government to the UN Security Council committee that deals with issues of the prevention of the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as their delivery means.

Jaafari expressed indignation over the fact that the countries that have been accusing the Syrian government of using chemical weapons have even not bothered to call for conducting a probe into the alleged use of prohibited ammunition and chemical agents by terrorists.

Also the Russian foreign ministry compared the Middle East to a testing site for terrorists to practice skills in synthesizing, producing and using chemical warfare agents.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov voiced his concern over chemical weapons in Libya going out of control. He said the country is out of control, and the risk of losing control over chemical weapons remains.

“We talked about that long ago, when NATO’s bombardments were still in progress. We kept warning that it was fraught with the proliferation of these weapons about the entire region of North Africa. Now it has happened,” Gatilov recalled.

“Some have been moved to Mali to end up in the hands of terrorists, and others were smuggled to Syria.”

The conflict in Syria started in March 2011, when sporadic pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of western and regional states.

The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle-East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history.

As the foreign-backed insurgency in Syria continues without an end in sight, the US government has boosted its political and military support to Takfiri extremists.

Washington has remained indifferent to warnings by Russia and other world powers about the consequences of arming militant groups.