Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFPAmman : The Syrian army pushed into Raqqa province, home to the de facto capital of the Islamic State (IS), after a major Russian-backed offensive against the militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday. Syrian army spokesmen were not immediately available for comment. Islamic State captured Tabqa in 2014 at the height of its rapid expansion in Syria and Iraq. That thrust, supported by the US special forces, aims to deny Islamic State any access to the Turkish frontier, which is crucial for supplies of arms and food. More than 1,000 militants have begun an offensive against the Syrian army positions southwest of Aleppo, the Russian ceasefire monitoring centre in Syria said in a statement on Saturday.

Source: Mint June 05, 2016 08:26 UTC