Syria in last 24 hours:

Army Regains Control of More Areas in Hama Province

Rasa - The Syrian army units drove the Al-Nusra Front (Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at or the Levant Liberation Board) out of another key area in Hama province.

News ID: 434796

Date: 15 November 2017 - 14:40

RNA - The Al-Nusra Front faced heavy losses and destruction of their military equipment in battles over controlling of strategic points, according to the statement of Syrian army.

The Syrian army also continued its advances in other key provinces across Syria.

Hama

The Syrian Army troops stormed the positions of Al-Nusra Front in Northern Hama on Tuesday, taking control over another region.

The army men hit Al-Nusra's defense lines in Northern Hama hard and managed to advance in Abu Dali region, seizing control of the town of Douma Southeast of al-Zoqbah region.

Meantime, the army soldiers killed or wounded a number of terrorists and destroyed their military hardware in large scale.

Abu Othman Ashada, a notorious commander of elite forces of the Al-Nusra Front, was killed in clashes with the Syrian Army troops in Northeastern Hama, dissident-affiliated websites reported on Tuesday.

The websites reported that the army men clashed fiercely with Al-Nusra in Northeastern Hama, killing a number of terrorists, including Abu Othman Ashada, the commander of Al-Nusra elite forces in al-Dana region.

The Al-Nusra's special forces units were formed last year after Jeish al-Nusra suffered heavy defeats in Western Aleppo.

The Al-Nusra elite forces units include Chechen, Turkistani, Arab terrorists.

Relevant reports said earlier that the army troops repelled a heavy offensive of Al-Nusra Front on a power plant in Northern Hama, killing a number of terrorists.

The army men engaged in fierce clashes with Al-Nusra and fended off their attack on the army positions near the town of Marhada and the power plant in Northern Hama.

A large number of terrorists were killed in the attack and the remaining pockets of them fled the battlefield leaving behind their weapons and military equipment.

Deir Ezzur

The ISIL terrorist group handed over Syria's second largest oilfield in Deir Ezzur province to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) within the framework of an agreement.

The websites reported that the ISIL delivered control of al-Tanak oilfield, Syria's second largest oilfield, to the SDF without any clashes in line with an agreement tat envisages surrendering their positions to the US-back forces, dissident-affiliated websites reported on Tuesday.

The oilfield is located 35km East of Deir Ezzur city.

The Arabic-language Lebanon-based al-Akhbar paper wrote on Friday that the ISIL withdrew from the town of Merkadah in Southern Hasaka and handed over control to the SDF within the framework of an agreement that envisages delivering control of its regions to the SDF without any battle.

Merkadah is located along the al-Khabour River and was the last stronghold of the ISIL in Hasaka. The town is on the administrative borderline between the provinces of Hasaka and Deir Ezzur.

After withdrawal from Merkadah, the ISIL is only in control of desert-like regions in Hasaka and Deir Ezzur provinces along the border with Iraq.

The SDF did not comment on ISIL's withdrawal, but the Deir Ezzur Military Council announced that they were ready to face the Syrian Army troops and popular forces in the province.

Kurds had been trying to take control over Merkadah since long time ago.

Army Using Modern Weapons

The Syrian Army has been using a modern model of Russia-made automatic Gvozdica howitzers in war on terrorists across the country, a Russian media outlet reported.

The Arabic-language website of Russia's state news agency, Sputnik, reported that the Gvozdica howitzers played a crucial role in supporting the army ground forces in anti-terrorism operations.

A sum of 400 howitzers of this kind have been in service since the start of the war in Syria.

The Arabic Sputnik reported on Monday the army troops started using a modern model of Russia-made tanks for the first time to build a floating bridge over the Euphrates River in Deir Ezzur province.

Sputnik quoted military experts as saying that MT-55 tanks or the new model of MTO-90, which was manufactured based on T-90 tank system, were first used by Russian engineering units in 2013 to build floating bridges over rivers outside Syria.

The Arabic Sputnik added that the MTO-90 tanks that weigh 47.8 tons and are capable of carrying 60 tons of equipment best suit the purpose.

It further said that the length of the bridge built in Syria's Deir Ezzur is 20 meters, and that it took some two to three minutes for the engineers to mount the bridge over the river with the help of the tanks.

The MTO-90 tank has two crews and can move at the speed of 60 km.

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