The capture of al-Qaryatain indicates IS can move troops and supplies across central Syria without interference, from Palmyra in the east and southwestward to al-Qaryatain.
Advertisement
Abdel Rahman stated that the city was strategically essential to ISIS as a result of it linked the traditional metropolis of, which the extremist group captured in Might, with the Qalamun area within the province of Damascus.
Islamic State (IS) has seized a key town in Syria following heavy clashes with President Bashar Assad’s forces, in the militants’ biggest advance since capturing Palmyra in May.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the IS group seized the town Thursday after three suicide bombers targeted army checkpoints at the entrance the day before, setting off a fierce battle.
It said the capture of the town links IS-held Palmyra with the Qalamun area.
Qaryatain is located southwest of Palmyra, home of the famous towering Roman ruins, and approximately 85 kilometers away from Homs city. Activists say it has a mixed population of around 40,000 Sunni Muslims and Christians, as well as thousands of internally displaced people who had fled from Homs.
The battle in Syria, which just lately entered its fifth yr, has raged on between the embattled authorities led by President Bashar al-Assad and numerous insurgent teams, together with a number of Islamist teams affiliated with ISIS or al Qaeda. No further details have been given by the Pentagon regarding the attack, which was launched on Monday.
Advertisement
Turkey last month said it would allow US aircraft to use its southern Incirlik airbase to attack IS in Syria, potentially speeding up air strikes against the militants. In addition, the rebel groups that were initially fighting al-Asaad’s forces have recently turned against each other in an increasingly brutal manner.
