Syria clashes kill more than 30 Daesh militants: monitor

AFP

Sat, 2018-02-10 22:01

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BEIRUT: More than 30 Daesh militants were killed in fierce clashes on Saturday with Syrian regime forces in the northwestern province of Idlib, a war monitor said.
The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, Rami Abdel Rahman, said Saturday’s fighting between Daesh and regime troops killed 32 extremists.
Troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad launched an offensive on Idlib December to retake the southeast of the province controlled by another group of extremists, the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS).
That group is dominated by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate, a rival of Daesh.
An alliance of militants and rebels overran Idlib in 2015, but since then, hard-liners have expanded their control and the influence of mainstream rebels has shrunk drastically.
The latest fighting comes after the Syrian army said on Friday it had routed Daesh from the neighboring Idlib provinces of Hama and Aleppo.
Syria’s war has killed more than 340,000 people and displaced millions since it began in March 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

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