Reuters reported that the workers were located in an area northeast of Damascus where the militants launched an assault against government forces this week, Syrian state television said on Thursday.
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The Badiyah cement factory lies outside Dmeir, which has seen fierce fighting in recent days as government forces have shelled IS positions inside the town.
Earlier this week IS said it had launched several attacks around north-east Damascus, including Tishrin power station and Dumeir military airport.
The Syrian state media said news of the mass kidnapping came out when local residents reported the workers had been missing since April 4th.
De Mistura told reporters on Thursday that negotiations were expected to begin on Monday, according to the BBC.
“They’ve got an advance next to Damascus, but we’ve got reports they’ve lost their main border crossing in the north of the country into Turkey, and those reports have now been confirmed, which means they are now seriously beginning to get strangled”.
Regime forces are congregated on the outskirts of al-Dumayr, while the town proper is controlled by rebels, most notably fighters of the Army of Islam, one of the largest, relatively moderate groups in the Damascus area. “There are people fleeing from the eastern districts to the west”, she said, asking not to be named out of fear for her safety.
Two rounds of “proximity talks” involving Syrian opposition and government representatives in Geneva have ended without any progress on ways to end the war in Syria.
The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria for information, added the ISIL attack on Dumeir killed at least 20 Syrian soldiers and allied paramilitary fighters. All the Gulf Arab states, apart from Oman, are taking part in a Saudi-led coalition that has been battling Iran-backed rebels in Yemen since March previous year, in a war which the United Nations says has killed around 6,300 people. It remained unclear precisely how many people had been taken and where they were.
Authorities this week began restoring power lines in the city and repairs to housing began on Wednesday, provincial governor Talal Barazi told state news agency SANA.
Many apartment blocks had partially collapsed walls and some had been totally demolished, AFP journalists who visited the city after its recapture reported.
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The Syrian army has repelled the attack on the airbase, but the IS still controls the factory.
