Syria in Last 24 Hours: Army Kills over 500 Militants in Yabroud

The Syrian army has killed hundreds of militants in recent battles in Damascus countryside in Southern Syria, informed military sources said Sunday.
The army units have killed over 500 foreign-backed terrorists since the beginning of their operations in Yabroud town in Damascus countryside, an informed military source told FNA today.

The source noted that the army has seized the town’s main square and it has regained control of Al-Akhzar Grand Mosque and its Catholic church.

Also in the past 24 hours, the Syrian army took control of a strategic mountainous area in Al-Qalamoun region in Damascus countryside.

The army units continued their military operations in Qalamoun and retook Marmaroun Mountain in the same area, an informed military source told FNA today.

Meantime, the Lebanese army tightened security of its common borders with Syria in a bid to confront infiltration of the militants from illegal checkpoints.

Also, the Syrian army made major advances in several districts of Yabroud after pushing back the foreign-backed militants.

The army pounded militants’ positions and gathering centers in the town of Yabroud in Damascus countryside before staging a massive raid on the militants’ concentration points in the town.

The Syrian army has now brought Yabroud under its full control and the militants are in a difficult situation because they have lost all their positions in the area.

Yabroud was under the control of the foreign-backed militants over the past months. It was the last major town in Qalamoun that the Syrian army is fighting to retake.

The town is located near the Lebanese border and explosives used in fatal bomb attacks in Lebanon were reportedly smuggled from the militant-held town.

Meantime, the Syrian army units on Saturday inflicted heavy losses upon militants in several areas, killing and injuring a number of them and destroying their weapons.

Also, a military source said that army units killed a number of militants in al-Marjeh and al-Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods in Aleppo city and destroyed their weapons and ammunition.

The source added that other army units destroyed militant groups’ hideouts in the villages of Hilan, Andan, Erbid, the free zone, Talet al-Madafeh, Rasem al-Abboud, al-Jadideh, al mansourah, Kafer Hamra, al-Shurfeh al-safra, azan. Ebtin, Kwairis and surrounding Aleppo central prison, and destroyed their tools.

Meantime, the head of the so-called Syrian National Coalition (SNC) called on the opposition’s Western allies to deliver on their promises about supplying heavy weapons to the militants in Syria.

Ahmad Jarba claimed that the militants were pledged by the allies to be supplied by heavy weapons during the recent talks in the Swiss city of Geneva.

The SNC chief also slammed the United States for not going ahead with its military threats against the Syrian government.

Jarba said that the conflict in Syria would have been closer to the end in case of a foreign military intervention.

Meantime, the media reports said that the Syrian opposition coalition has proposed a plan to reach a peace agreement with Israel in lieu of Tel Aviv’s direct military intervention in Syria.

Member of the Syrian opposition coalition Kamal Al-Labvani has asked Israel to take attach the Golan Heights to itself forever instead of declaring a free fly-zone over the Southern parts of Syria, Al-Arab newspaper reported.

“Why shouldn’t we be able to sell the Golan Heights because it is better than losing Syria and Golan at once,” Al-Labvani told the Arab-language newspaper.

The Syrian opposition’s proposal includes a no-fly zone in Southern Syria by using Israel’s Patriot and other air defense missile systems.

Earlier this month, Syria filed an official complaint to the United Nations over a recent Israeli attack in the occupied Golan Heights and also for Tel Aviv’s direct support for militants in Syria.

In the complaint, addressed in separate official letters to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the UN Security Council, Syria emphasized that the aggression showed that the Israeli regime was directly involved in backing the militant groups operating inside Syria against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

The formal letters also condemned the Israeli attack as flagrant violation of the disengagement agreement of 1974, the UN Charter and the international law.