Local Editor
Syrian activists said on Tuesday that at least 33 members of the “Islamic State in Iraq and Levant” and “al-Nusra Front” organizations were killed during the ongoing fierce fighting since the militants launched a massive campaign in the Aleppo city of Deir Ezzor three days before.
“Clashes are too violent. Militants are using some tanks they possess, while the regular forces target their pockets,” activists told Agence France Presse.
Moreover, the general military commander of Al-Qaeda-linked “Al-Nusra Front” terrorist group in Syria, Imad al-Ahmad al-Hamad, was killed in a special operation carried out by the Syrian army in Howayqa neighborhood of Deir Ezzor.
Al-Hamad was also the Emir of al-Nusra Front, Al-Alam news website said.
Bilal Talib al-Dagher – chief of the so-called “Al-Mostafa Brigades”, Abo al-Zir al-Diri dubbed as “Lion of Incursions” and Ahmad al-Mashreq – chief of the so-called “Al-Saeqa Brigade” – were among the killed.
Lately, militants’ attacks focused on Howayqa neighborhood which contains security centers, government buildings and official circles.
Meanwhile, Syrian army units destroyed a weapons and ammunition bunker managed by the opposition groups and number of their strongholds and gathering points in Deir Ezzor and its countryside. Scores of them were left killed and injured.
“An army unit engaged with an armed terrorist group, whose members tried to infiltrate from Sana’ neighborhood to Rasafa neighborhood, leaving most of them dead, including a sniper”, state-run news agency SANA reported.
SANA also said that army units “killed many terrorists of Al-Nusra Front, some of them were of Palestinian and Tunisian nationalities, during a series of operations carried out Tuesday against their strongholds in the East Ghota towns, and the villages and countryside of Damascus”.
In al-Hosn Castle of TaKalakh countryside of Homs, the Syrian Army targeted one the militants bunkers killing a number of them and wounding others.
Among the killed were Ahmad Orwa al-Zoabi – a field commander, Walid Khaled al-Jalakh, Walid al-Hosni, Mohammad Ibin Nashwan al-Hosni, Hassan Ahmad Steif, Khaled Mahmoud Jannad, Ali al-Dorra, Mohammad Mahmoud Awwad, Bo Jawad al-Doomani and Issa Ahmad Gharib.
In a related development, other media outlets stated that Abu Jahjah, a Tunisian terrorist, was killed along with other terrorists belonging to Al Qaeda organization in the Ras al-Ein of al-Hasakah province.
The national military also destroyed a mortar and a bulldozer which were used by insurgents to set up earth mounds and block the streets in the neighborhood ofBarzeh of Damascus. Syrian soldiers also killed a number of them near Al-Mestah Hill and the surrounding farms in Teshrin Hospital. Among the Targeted militants were Anas al-Aghwani, chief of one of the armed groups.
Dozens of Al-Nusra Front militants were also claimed in al-Thayabiya and Hajira towns of rural Damascus, including the Palestinian Sami Al-Ahmad and Muhammad Yahya Mandil.
The Syrian army launched a wide-scale military operation in April to put an end to the violent unrest in the country.
Syria was hit by the unrest since mid-March 2011, where the Syrian government accuses foreign actors of orchestrating the conflict by supporting the militant opposition groups with arms and money.
Source: Al-Manar Website
