Syria army, Hezbollah forces make advances in Zabadani

Backed by fighters from the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah, Syrian army forces have made fresh advances against foreign-backed terrorists in the key southwestern city of Zabadani.

The allied forces established control over 20 building blocks in the city, killing and injuring dozens of terrorists and destroying their weaponry and munitions, the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on Thursday.

Situated about 12 kilometers (seven miles) from the Jdeida border crossing on the Damascus-Beirut highway, Zabadani is one of the last militant strongholds near the Lebanese border.

Elsewhere in the southwest, Syria army units killed a number of terrorists in the Dara’a and Quneitra provinces.

In the northwestern province of Latakia, Syrian forces killed 23 militants in separate operations in the two neighboring provinces of Idlib and Hama.

In Aleppo, another northwestern province, as well as the sprawling central province of Homs, army troops killed a number of militants with the Takfiri terrorist group Daesh.

The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which started in March 2011, has reportedly claimed more than 240,000 lives up until now.