Syrian army establishes control over Uqayribat town in Hama

TEHRAN (defapress) – Syrian Army and Armed Forces reestablished control over Uqayribat town in Hama province, a military source announced on Sunday.

News ID: 65835

Date: 04 September 2017 - 14:55

The source told SANA that army units, in cooperation with supporting forces, established control over Uqayribat town, Masaada village, Rasm Qanbar farm and the area surrounding them in the eastern countryside of Hama.

The source pointed out that the liberation of Uqayribat town came after intensive military operations on the positions of the terrorist organization, which was in a state of collapse and its members were fleeing en masse from the battlefield as a result of operations in which dozens of terrorists were killed or injured.

According to the source, the army’s engineering units are dismantling the landmines and IEDs planted by the terrorists on the streets of Uqayribat.

Meanwhile, SANA’s reporter said that Uqayribat has become completely safe, while violent clashes took place between the army and small isolated groups of ISIL near Massoud village and some other villages surrounding the town.

The reporter added that more than 120 terrorists were killed during the liberation operation, noting that army units started to advance from Uqayribat towards Hamadi Omar village to the west of the town with the aim establishing control over it, as it’s considered the second largest hotbed of ISIL in the eastern countryside of Hama.

Meanwhile, an army unit raided one of ISIL terrorists’ barricades on the southwestern outskirts of Deir Ezzor city.

A military source told SANA that an army unit operating in Deir Ezzor killed in a successful raid in the direction of the Water Resources Department area a number of ISIL terrorists and seized the weapons and ammunition that were in their possession.

One of the soldiers who participated in the raid said "We carried out at dawn a successful raid against one of ISIL terrorists’ barricades in the direction of the Water Resources area through crawling and infiltrating it and throwing several bombs when we almost approached the area, killing all the terrorists at the site.”

Another soldier said that the weapons and ammunition that were in the ISIL terrorists’ possession at the barricade were seized, including an RPG launcher and 3 charges with their launchers, a night binocular and a machine gun.

Meanwhile, army units, in cooperation with the supporting forces, have expanded control deeper in al-Badia region after earlier arriving at the administrative border to Deir Ezzor province from the direction of al-Sukhneh city.

SANA reporter said that the army units, backed by fire support helicopters, continued pursing ISIL terrorists deeper into al-Badia deep, eliminating the last gatherings of the organization in Hreibsha area that is located in the southwest of Deir Ezzor province.

The reporter said that the operations resulted in killing or injuring many of the ISIL terrorists and destroying their last fortifications in Hreibsha area, noting that the army units have consolidated their military points there after having dismantled the IEDs and mines planted by the terrorists in the area.

SANA’s camera accompanied the army units’ operations as they advanced east of al-Sukhneh towards Deir Ezzor and monitored the difficulty of the military operations there due to the rugged geographical nature of the region and the large high mountains where ISIL had dug many tunnels that included command centers and field hospitals.

In another context, local sources in the western countryside of Deir Ezzor said that ISIL terrorists are in a state of confusion and collapse after 72 of them were killed in airstrikes on their gatherings and movements over the past two days.

The sources added that more terrorist groups of ISIL have fled, including the so-called "Emir of ISIL in al-Kabar”, the terrorist Ali Hajj al-Rajab , while ISIL terrorists executed seven persons in al-Bukamal city and Ghranij town and opened fire on a number of civilians at al-Hawaeyij crossing, leaving one citizen in Ayyash village dead.

Al-Boumatar village have witnessed since Sunday dawn fierce clashes between the village’s locals and ISIL terrorist groups who attacked a woman and its child while they were passing the river, according to the local sources.