Syrian government soldiers make fresh gains on Damascus outskirts

Syrian government forces ride on pick-up trucks mounted with weapons in the country’s semi-arid southeastern region of al-Badiya on June 13, 2017. (Photo by SANA news agency)

Syrian government soldiers have made great achievements in their operations on the eastern outskirts of the capital, and managed to take back territory from foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants.

The media bureau of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement reported that army soldiers had taken control of a number of blocks in Jobar district, and another area in Ain Terma neighborhood.

A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, also told Syria’s official news agency SANA that government troops had targeted the gatherings of the Takfiri Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militant group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, in al-Rawabi, Tal Rinaba, Beir al-Qasab and Rajm al-Sarihi on the southeastern outskirts of Damascus.

The source added that dozens of terrorists were killed in the operations, noting that three vehicles equipped with heavy machineguns, four transport vehicles, five motorcycles, and a stationary rocket launcher were destroyed as well.

Elsewhere in Maliha al-Atash village of the southern province of Dara’a, army units killed several Jabhat Fateh al-Sham terrorists and destroyed an anti-tank rocket launcher.

Terrorists also confirmed on social media networks that they had lost a dozen members in the Dar'a al-Balad neighborhood of Dara'a city. Leader of the Takfiri Soyouf Horan Battalion, Bilal Yasiin al-Masalmeh, and senior militant commander Isaa Mohamed Salameh al-Masalmeh were among the slain extremists.

Moreover, Syrian army soldiers launched operations against Daesh terrorists east of Salamyiah area on the outskirts of Hama, killing and injuring many of the militants and destroying their munitions.

US-backed SDF forces close in on Raqqah from south

Meanwhile, the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has closed in on Syria's militant-held northern city of Raqqah, retaking territory on the south bank of the Euphrates River.

Nouri Mahmoud, spokesman for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which is part of the SDF, said on Wednesday that Daesh Takfiris had been driven out of Kasrat al-Farj suburb as US-backed SDF fighters pushed towards the southern riverbank from the west.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters walk along a damaged street in the al-Sana’a industrial neighborhood of Syria’s militant-held northern city of Raqqah on June 14, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

It is estimated that a population of 300,000 civilians are trapped inside Raqqah, including 80,000 displaced from other parts of Syria. Thousands have fled in recent months, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs believes about 160,000 people remain in the city.

On June 6, the SDF said it had launched an operation aimed at pushing Daesh out of Raqqah.

The city of Raqqah, which lies on the northern bank of the Euphrates River, was overrun by Daesh terrorists in March 2013, and was proclaimed the center for most of the Takfiris’ administrative and control tasks the next year.