According to Syria's SANA news agency report, the army has retaken al-Herak, Rakham, al-Soura, Alma, al-Mliha al-Sharqia and al-Mliha al-Gharbia in Dara’a countryside.
The Syrian military’s engineering units later started combing the area in order to dismantle mines and IEDs planted by terrorists before they fled the area. Army would continue its operations in Dara’a until the eradication of terrorism; a military official was reported as saying.
The army units secured several family homes and set up military checkpoints in the liberated villages and towns to use them as a launch pad for continued military operations “to eradicate terrorist presence” in the entire Dara’a province.
Separately, SANA reported that foreign-backed militants in the villages of Um Walad, Jbib and al-Aslaha in Dara’a’s eastern countryside had agreed to lay down their arms and reconcile with the Syrian government.
A Syrian military commander, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that the army’s gains had left the anti-Damascus militants with “no choice” but to surrender. “The terrorist groups are opting for settlement and reconciliation,” he added.
In another important development, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, in an exclusive interview with British Channel 4, on Friday said that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad isn’t just defending Syria, he is defending the entire region against terrorism.
SANA reports that Lavrov said that Assad is defending Syria’s sovereignty and unity, and on a wider scale he is defending the entire region against terrorism.
On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had withdrawn 13 warplanes, 14 helicopters and 1,140 troops from Syria in the past few days.
Russia has supported the internationally recognised government headed by Bashar al-Assad since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, politically as well as militarily , and since September 2015 through direct military involvement.
