Syria army advances against IS, approaches Deir Ezzor: monitor

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Saudi stance on Syria’s future firm, no place for Assad: Al-Jubeir

Syrian refugees and militants evacuated from northeastern Lebanon are seen just before crossing into the rebel-held area of Al-Saan in the central Hama province on Aug 3. Thousands of Syrian refugees were bussed out of the restive border area between Lebanon and Syria as part of a ceasefire deal between Lebanon’s Shi’ite movement Hezbollah and fighters from al-Qaeda’s former Syrian branch. In exchange, the jihadist group released two Hezbollah fighters, an AFP correspondent said, adding that they arrived in Red Crescent vehicles in the area of Al-Saan in central Hama province. (AFP)

BEIRUT, Aug 6, (Agencies): Syrian government troops advanced overnight against the Islamic State group in the country’s north and centre, drawing closer to the key battleground of Deir Ezzor, a monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the army had made “significant progress” south of Raqqa city. “There is now just 4 kms between regime forces and the town of Madan, which is the last town controlled by IS in the Raqqa countryside,” the Observatory said.

Madan lies next to the border between Raqqa province and Deir Ezzor, an eastern province that is mostly held by IS. Jihadists have besieged government forces and civilians inside the provincial capital Deir Ezzor city since 2015. Syrian loyalist troops are battling IS in the south of Raqqa province separately from an offensive by the USbacked Syrian Democratic Forces, a militia that is fighting the jihadists inside Raqqa city. The regime is also fighting IS in central Homs province, where overnight they captured the last jihadistheld town in the area, the Observatory said.

The capture of Al-Sukhna opens the route for government troops to advance towards Deir Ezzor on a second axis. There was no official confirmation of Sukhna’s capture from Syria’s government. State news agency SANA said the army had surrounded the town from three sides.

Strategic
The Lebanese army captured a number of strategic hilltops bordering Syria from Islamic State militants on Sunday amid mounting expectations for a campaign to decisively defeat them there, the army and state media said. The National News Agency said the army captured several hills between the frontier towns of Ras Baalbek and Arsal, and the Army said in a statement it destroyed IS fortifications and killed several IS militants. The militants have been a thorn in the country’s side since they began filtering in from neighboring Syria, which has been in the throes of civil war since 2011.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia confirmed on Sunday that its stance regarding the Syrian crisis is compatible with the Geneva-1 Declaration and the UN Security Council Resolution 2254. The resolution provides for forming a transitional authority to govern the country, drafting a new constitution and preparing elections for a new future for Syria which will have no place for Bashar al-Assad. This came in a remark by an official source at the Foreign Ministry published by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). The source said reports by several media outlets quoting Riyadh’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir regarding the Syrian crisis are “inaccurate”. The source also reiterated Saudi Arabia’s support for the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), the procedures to expand the participation of its members, and the unification of the opposition. Veteran former war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who is on a UN commission probing rights abuses in Syria, has said she intends to resign because the body “does absolutely nothing”. “I am frustrated, I give up,” she told the Swiss newspaper Blick in an interview published on Sunday. “I have written my letter of resignation and will send it in the next few days”. Del Ponte, a 70-year-old Swiss national who came to prominence investigating war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, has been part of the four-member UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria since September 2012. The commission has been tasked with investigating human rights violations and war crimes in Syria since shortly after the conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests that have evolved into a complex proxy war. The continued violence has left more than 330,000 people dead and displaced millions.

Although the commission has released at least 12 reports on war crimes in Syria, investigators have never gained access to Syria itself. A senior Syrian government minister on Sunday dismissed as a “joke” plans by the Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria to hold elections and said they would not be allowed to threaten the country’s territorial unity. Deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad also said the Syrian government must eventually assert control over Kurdish-led areas, which until now Damascus has tolerated in an uneasy relationship. “Will be a joke. Syria will never ever allow any part of its territory to be separated,” Mekdad said in Damascus in an interview with Reuters and the BBC.

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