Al-Qaida-linked fighters on Friday attacked a key central Syrian village at the crossroads between areas under government control and those controlled by insurgents, activists said. In eastern Syria, meanwhile, government forces reportedly entered a town that’s one of the biggest strongholds of the Islamic State group.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Syrian forces and allied militiamen entered western parts of Mayadeen, including the town’s wheat silos compound and the sheep market.
The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media earlier said that troops were marching south from Deir el-Zour toward Mayadeen, under the cover of airstrikes.
If the report proves true and Syrian troops indeed entered Mayadeen, it would mark another blow for the extremist group, which has lost wide areas of Iraq and Syria in its self-declared caliphate over the past year.