Syrian army scores new victories: Russian general

Syrian government troops supported by Russian air force have scored a number of victories in the west and the center of the war-torn country, the Russian General Staff said Tuesday.

"A total of 115 settlements and over 1,100 square kilometers of territory have been liberated from Islamic State terrorists since the beginning of March," Col. Gen. Sergey Rudskoy, chief of the General Staff's Main Operations Department, told a news briefing.

Syrian troops have launched a counteroffensive operation in the west of the country, where a group numbering 10,000 militants had managed to seize several settlements, he said.

More than 2,100 militants, 55 armored vehicles and more than 100 cars with heavy weapons were destroyed in the four days of fighting in this region, said Rudskoy.

He said the Syrian army also conducted successful operations against terrorists near the country's capital of Damascus, and in the northeast of Aleppo province and in the vicinity of the recently liberated ancient city of Palmyra.

Meanwhile, the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties continued providing medical assistance and distributing food to civilians throughout Syria, Rudskoy said.

He said a detachment of Russian sappers had conducted mine clearing in 18 areas of Palmyra, including 940 buildings on the territory of more than 445 hectares, 46 km of roads, neutralizing more than 1,800 explosive items and improvised explosive devices.

In another development, the fifth and latest round of UN-mediated political talks resumed Friday in a bid to broker a political deal to end the six-year-old Syrian conflict, which has killed over 310,000 people and displaced millions more. Endi