BEIRUT, Lebanon: Daesh militants have recaptured territory in northern Syria while Syrian government forces and their allies also recovered towns and villages in the west of the country on Saturday, monitors said.
In a counter-attack near the Turkish border, Daesh fighters forced the foreign-backed rebels to retreat, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The rebels, whom Turkey has supported with tanks and air strikes, had been pushing toward the Daesh stronghold of Dabiq, a village with symbolic importance to the jihadists.
The Daesh attack, which began late on Friday, retook villages including Akhtarin and pushed toward Turkman Bareh, some three km (two miles) east of Dabiq, said the British-based Observatory, which tracks the war using contacts on the ground.
Turkey’s military said two Syrian rebels had been killed and nine wounded in fighting against Daesh. It said Turkish warplanes had hit 14 Daesh targets over the last 24 hours and that an air strike by the US-led coalition killed two Daesh militants.
Ankara launched its first major military incursion into Syria in August, deploying tanks and warplanes to support insurgents it backs in an operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield.”
The operation has separately targeted Daesh and Kurdish militants, whose presence along its border Turkey sees as a threat.
Turkish attacks against the Kurdish YPG militia have caused tension with Washington, for whom the YPG has been an effective partner on the ground for its air campaign against Daesh.
Assad offensive
In Hama, Syrian government forces and their allies recaptured several towns and villages from rebels, monitors and pro-Damascus media reported, reversing rare gains made by the insurgents in recent weeks, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
Damascus, backed by Russia’s air force and Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi fighters, holds the upper hand in Syria’s key battleground of Aleppo, having encircled rebel-held areas of the northern city for all but a brief period since July.
Rebels in Hama province, further south, captured a series of government-held towns and villages after launching an attack at the end of August.
But government forces retook several of those on Saturday, in an attack which put them on the front foot in northern Hama for the first time in weeks, the Observatory said.
Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV said the Syrian army had seized towns or villages including Al-Talisiya, Al-Qahira and Tel Al-Usud. Hezbollah is fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad.
The Observatory said the government side had taken advantage of recent infighting between two insurgent groups in the countryside of Idlib, north of Hama’s provincial boundary.
Those factions, the powerful Islamist Ahrar Al-Sham and Jund Al-Aqsa, which the United States says was once linked to Al-Qaeda, have been exchanging fire since early on Friday, the Observatory said.
In a separate government advance against insurgents near Damascus, the Syrian army and allied forces seized a large portion of the town of Al-Hameh to the northwest of the Syrian capital, the Observatory reported.
In a counter-attack near the Turkish border, Daesh fighters forced the foreign-backed rebels to retreat, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The rebels, whom Turkey has supported with tanks and air strikes, had been pushing toward the Daesh stronghold of Dabiq, a village with symbolic importance to the jihadists.
The Daesh attack, which began late on Friday, retook villages including Akhtarin and pushed toward Turkman Bareh, some three km (two miles) east of Dabiq, said the British-based Observatory, which tracks the war using contacts on the ground.
Turkey’s military said two Syrian rebels had been killed and nine wounded in fighting against Daesh. It said Turkish warplanes had hit 14 Daesh targets over the last 24 hours and that an air strike by the US-led coalition killed two Daesh militants.
Ankara launched its first major military incursion into Syria in August, deploying tanks and warplanes to support insurgents it backs in an operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield.”
The operation has separately targeted Daesh and Kurdish militants, whose presence along its border Turkey sees as a threat.
Turkish attacks against the Kurdish YPG militia have caused tension with Washington, for whom the YPG has been an effective partner on the ground for its air campaign against Daesh.
Assad offensive
In Hama, Syrian government forces and their allies recaptured several towns and villages from rebels, monitors and pro-Damascus media reported, reversing rare gains made by the insurgents in recent weeks, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
Damascus, backed by Russia’s air force and Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi fighters, holds the upper hand in Syria’s key battleground of Aleppo, having encircled rebel-held areas of the northern city for all but a brief period since July.
Rebels in Hama province, further south, captured a series of government-held towns and villages after launching an attack at the end of August.
But government forces retook several of those on Saturday, in an attack which put them on the front foot in northern Hama for the first time in weeks, the Observatory said.
Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV said the Syrian army had seized towns or villages including Al-Talisiya, Al-Qahira and Tel Al-Usud. Hezbollah is fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad.
The Observatory said the government side had taken advantage of recent infighting between two insurgent groups in the countryside of Idlib, north of Hama’s provincial boundary.
Those factions, the powerful Islamist Ahrar Al-Sham and Jund Al-Aqsa, which the United States says was once linked to Al-Qaeda, have been exchanging fire since early on Friday, the Observatory said.
In a separate government advance against insurgents near Damascus, the Syrian army and allied forces seized a large portion of the town of Al-Hameh to the northwest of the Syrian capital, the Observatory reported.
