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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Syrian forces recapture last IS stronghold in Homs

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Government forces have retaken control of last IS bastion in Syria’s central province of Homs in the latest setback to the extremist militia, a monitoring group and military sources said on Sunday.


The recapture of the strategically important town of Al Sukhna in Homs late on Saturday followed intense bombardment by regime and allied Russian warplanes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.


Retaking Al Sukhna allows government forces to advance on the eastern province of Deir al Zour, which is mostly controlled by IS militants.


Syrian forces, backed by Russian air power, on Sunday intensely shelled militants on a road linking Al Sukhna to Deir al Zour, the Observatory reported. Government troops and allied paramilitaries were meanwhile conducting a mopping-up operation inside Al Sukhna, the Britain-based watchdog added.


“Government forces entered the town of Al Sukhna following fierce clashes with IS gunmen, of whom hundreds were forced to flee towards Deir al Zour,” a pro-government military commander said earlier.


He said on condition of anonymity that explosives experts were clearing the town of mines laid by militants.


Syria’s state news agency Sana, citing an unnamed military source,said that army units were tightening the noose around the remaining extremists in Al Sukhna.


Meanwhile, a senior Syrian government minister on Sunday dismissed as a “joke” plans by the Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria to hold elections and said they would not be allowed to threaten the country’s territorial unity.


Deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad also said the Syrian government must eventually assert control over Kurdish-led areas, which until now Damascus has tolerated in an uneasy relationship.


“[The elections] will be a joke. Syria will never ever allow any part of its territory to be separated,” Mekdad said in Damascus in an interview with Reuters and the BBC.


Syria’s multi-sided conflict has turned the country into a patchwork of areas controlled by the government of President Bashar al Assad, various rebel groups, IS militants and Kurdish-led groups. —Agencies


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