Off the wire
• City slicker seagulls prefer junk food to fresh fish: biologists  • AU strongly condemns killings of African nationals by terrorist elements in Libya  • UNICEF confirms 4 staff killed in Somalia explosion  • Urgent: 7 injured as blast hit Afghan northern Kunduz city  • Eurozone construction production down by 1.8 pct in February  • Japan's opposition leader urge Abe be cautious on war anniversary statement  • 43 dinosaur egg fossils unearthed in south China  • At least 60 die in fresh airstrikes on Yemen's capital  • Chinese vice president meets Hong Kong delegation  • China Headlines: China's RRR cut positive for real economy  
You are here: 　 Home

Syrian troops cut rebel supply route in Daraa province

Xinhua, April 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Syrian army on Monday made new progress in the southern province of Daraa, cutting off a main supply route the rebels were using to smuggle fighters and weapons from neighboring Jordan, according to the state-run news agency SANA.

According to the report, the army forces captured five towns in the northeastern countryside of Daraa.

Also, the troops fully besieged the towns of Mlaihat al-Atash and Busra al-Harir, which are under the control of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, it added.

Both besieged towns are 85 km from the capital Damascus and 55 km from the city of Daraa.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes have been raging since Monday morning between the government troops and armed Islamist militants in the vicinity of Busra al-Harir in an attempt by the Syrian forces to storm that area.

The Syrian army and allied forces unleashed a wide-scale offensive in the northern countryside of Daraa and the southern countryside of Damascus in February to weaken the Nusra Front in that part of the country. Endit