(Zaman Al Wasl)- Powerful Tahrir al-Sham group backed by Free Syrian Army has thwarted regime forces attack on the town of al-Rahjan in Hama province, military source said on Wednesday.
The regime army backed by allied militias have failed to take the town in the eastern countryside of Hama despite numerous attacks in the last two months.
Iba'a, the official news agency of Tahrir al-Sham, said 15 regime troops were killed late on Tuesday in Belail village near al-Rahjan, the hometown of regime's Defense Minister Fahd Jassem al-Freij.
More than 119,000 pro-regime forces have been killed, including 62,000 army troops, tens of thousands of loyalist militiamen, and 1,556 fighters from Hezbollah, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
In the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, Russian air strikes killed 21 civilians early Wednesday in a village held by the Islamic State near the Euphrates River in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The bombing raids hit the village of al-Jerzi on the eastern bank of the river, which cuts across Deir Ezzor province.
"Twenty-one civilians were killed, including nine children, very early Wednesday in Russian air strikes targeting residential buildings in al-Jerzi," Observatory's head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Russia's Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Valery Gerasimov said on Wednesday that the group has been expelled from its final strongholds in the Euphrates Valley, The Daily Mail reported.
'Therefore, as of today, there's no territory controlled by ISIS in Syria,' he said.
Russian forces have been fighting alongside dictator Basahr al-Assad's troops since 2015 to drive ISIS out of the country.
In November they achieved a major victory after pushing the terror group out of Deir Ezzor, the last major city it held in the Middle East.
Zaman A Wasl
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