News   /   Syria

Daesh terrorists driven out of Syria’s Idlib province in fight with rival outfit: Monitor

Smoke billows as Syrian pro-government forces advance in the Jamiyet al-Ruwad neighborhood, on the northern outskirts of Dayr al-Zawr, on September 14, 2017, during their battle against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group. (Photo by AFP)

The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has been pushed out of Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, after it made an incursion into the region bordering Turkey two days earlier, a monitoring group says.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Monday that the terror outfit captured the southern village of Bashkun, situated near the border with the western-central province of Hama, over the weekend after clashes with the Takfiri Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group.

“After fierce fighting, Tahrir al-Sham has once again chased” Daesh militants “out of Idlib” on Monday, said the UK-based monitor.

The HTS is an alliance of terror groups, spearheaded by a former al-Qaeda affiliate that changed its name last year from the Nusra Front to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, are mostly in control of Idlib and swaths of land in Syria’s northern and northwestern regions.

The setback for Daesh, which has already lost all its urban strongholds in the Arab country, comes more than three years after it was first driven out of the province in northwestern Syria after battles with rival militant groups.

The Daesh organization commenced its reign of terror and destruction in Syria and Iraq in 2013 and 2014 respectively. In June 2014, the group declared its so-called “caliphate” in both Arab countries after seizing the Iraqi city of Mosul and pronounced it as its de facto capital in the Middle Eastern country. Daesh also made the city of Raqqah as its main stronghold in Syria as it held large swaths of land in the war-torn country.

However, the terror outfit gradually lost the areas it had held at its height, thanks to the efforts the government and pro-government forces exerted in both countries.

On Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared total victory in the three-year war to expel the Takfiri group, which once held roughly one third of the country's territory. In Syria, Daesh now holds just a few decreasing pockets of land.


Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Press TV News Roku