Syria in Last 24 Hours: Army Repels ISIL’s Attack on Gov’t Positions in Homs

The ISIL terrorists’ attack to capture the government forces’ positions in the Eastern part of Homs was fended off by the strong defense of the Syrian military men.

Meantime, the Syrian army and popular forces continued their military advances in other parts of Syria, including Aleppo and Damascus, over the past 24 hours.

Tens of terrorists were killed and dozens more were injured during the Syrian army’s operations in other provinces across Syria.

Homs

The Syrian Army troops and popular forces engaged in tough battle with ISIL in Eastern Homs and managed to repel the terrorists’ attack, inflicting major casualties on them.

The army soldiers and Dar’a al-Qalamoun popular fighters engaged in fierce clashes with ISIL in Abu Qa’atour region 22km away from Jubb al-Jarrah up to areas near Kahleh battalion base and fended off their attack.

The army men killed a number of terrorists and forced their remaining pockets to retreat from the battlefield.

Aleppo

The Syrian Army troops continued to advance against the ISIL in Eastern Aleppo, capturing more villages and regions in their push towards the last stronghold of terrorists in the province.

The army soldiers engaged in fierce clashes with ISIL and managed to drive them out of the villages of al-Shohada, Khazaref, al-Mezeh, al-Waseteh, Dowar Ahamad Yasin, Teshrin 1 Farm, Khan al-Sha’ar, Khirbet Soudeh and al-Hamrawi.

In the meantime, the Syrian state new agency reported that over 2,000 ISIL fighters have been killed or wounded in the fresh round of the army operation in Eastern Aleppo that has thus far resulted in the liberation of over 23 regions.

The agency added that 11 senior commanders and emirs, including ISIL Commander Abu Yaqoub Turkistani, Australian Abu Yusouf , ISIL’s Mufti (religious leader) in Maskana Ahmad al-Othman, ISIL Commander Abu Ayoub from Chechnya and Saudi national Abdul Rahman Menqas, are among the killed ISIL terrorists in the East Aleppo operation.

The agency further added that 115 military vehicles, 7 tanks, 6 BMP vehicles, 4 operation rooms, 14 command posts and five bomb-laden vehicles of the ISIL have also been destroyed in the operations.

Reports said earlier on Monday that the army units engaged in a tough battle with ISIL near Maskana and managed to take control over the villages of Ein Albu Maneh, al-Fasayeh, al-Qahera, al-Ja’abat and the 1st Farm, killing and wounding a number of terrorists.

The army soldiers also pushed ISIL back from the sugar factory region.

A military source, meantime, reported that the army troops’ operation in the region is underway with heavy fire of the army’s artillery units and heavy raids of the Russian fighter jets, adding that a large number of ISIL fighters are leaving their positions in the battlefields for the town of Maskana.

Idlib

Several members of Tahrir al-Sham Hay’at (the Levant Liberation Board) have been killed and several more have been wounded in a fresh round of clashes with the Ahrar al-Sham rival terrorist group in Southern Idlib, local sources said.

The sources reported that six militants of Tahrir al-Sham Hay’at were killed after the rival terrorists from Ahrar al-Sham raided their positions in the village of Filoun.

A number of terrorists were also injured in the infighting.

Websites affiliated to the terrorist groups disclosed on Sunday that a fresh round of clashes started between two main rival groups in Idlib province in Northwestern Syria.

The sources said that Tahrir al-Sham Hay’at stormed one of the positions of Faylaq al-Sham in the town of Ma’ara Shourin on the pretext that the targeted region was an unflaged land between the territories ruled by the two sides.

The sources said that all forces of Faylaq al-Sham and Tahrir al-Sham in the region went on alert after the clashes.

A commander of Faylaq al-Sham also warned that his forces will give a crushing response to any aggression by Tahrir al-Sham.

Damascus

The Syrian Army troops continued their advances against terrorists of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and managed to recapture more territories along the Damascus-Palmyra highway.

The Syrian pro-government forces continued their military operation in Eastern Damascus, hitting the FSA positions in the village of al-Aliyaniyah, managing to break-through the defense lines of the militants and capturing al-Aliyaniyah village and its nearby lands.

The FSA forces lost a number of forces in the army attack.

The army forces had previously restored security to the Damascus-Palmyra highway and had significantly advanced against terrorists along the Damascus-Baghdad highway.

Meantime, local sources in Northern Damascus reported that the last group of gunmen and their family members were leaving Barzeh district for militant-held regions in Idlib following implementation of an evacuation deal between the Syrian Army and militants.

The sources said that preliminary measures have been done for the evacuation of the last group of gunmen that refused to endorse the peace agreement with the Syrian Army from Barzeh, adding that several buses have arrived in Barzeh to transfer them to Idlib province.

Thousands of gunmen and their family members have thus far left Barzeh and a number of them have remained in the district, applying for government amnesty.

The sources said that after the exit of the last group of gunmen and their family members the army soldiers will take full control over the key district after five years.

Deir Ezzur

The Syrian Army’s artillery and missile units, along with the country’s Air Force, targeted heavily ISIL’s concentration centers and movements in the outskirts of the Eastern city of Deir Ezzur, inflicting major losses on the terrorists.

The artillery units pounded ISIL’s positions in areas near Deir Ezzur’s airbase, Panorama base, al-Tayem oilfield, West of Tal (hill) al-Sonouf, the villages of Baqaliyeh, Tal al-Mahrouqat in the village of Ayyash and around regiment 137 base, killing or wounding a large number of terrorists and destroying their military hardware and weapons.

In the meantime, the artillery units opened heavy fire at a convoy of ISIL’s vehicle on al-Sham road in Kaziyeh al-Azm region, destroying most of the vehicles and killing a large number of the terrorists.

Also, the army aircraft carried out repeated airstrikes against ISIL’s gathering centers in al-Maqaber (cemetery) region, Jonayd division base, Tamin brigade base and al-Makbat region in the Southern outskirts of Deir Ezzur, inflicting major casualties on the terrorists.