Radical rebels advance in Syria's southern province of Qunaitera

Armed militant groups, including al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, advanced in Syria's southern province of Qunaitera, as the Syrian troops stripped the rebels of key towns in the central province of Hama, activists said on Saturday.
The Nusra Fighters and like-minded groups are advancing in Qunaitera, at the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that the various rebel groups are now in control over 80 percent of that province after the extremist groups sized control over the towns of Rawadi and Hamidiyeh a day earlier.
The Syrian troops are still in control over four towns in Qunaitera, according to the activists.
The Observatory said the Syrian troops and its allies were trying to recapture the areas they lost to the rebels in Qunaitera which could be the second province to spin out of the government control since the Syrian troops totally lost the province of al- Raqqa for the Islamic State (IS) militant group.
On the government side, the state-run SANA news agency reported that the Syrian troops targeted rebel positions in the Um Batneh and Bir Ajam in Qunaitera, killing many "terrorists."
The troops also pummeled the positions of the radical rebels in the towns of Nabe Sakher and Hamidiyeh in the same province, the report said.
The clashes in Qunaitera have been raging since late last month when the rebels there unleashed a wide-scale offensive against government troops' positions.
Meanwhile, the Syrian troops on Saturday wrested back control over at least three towns in the northern countryside of the central province of Hama, just a day after the army fully recaptured the town of Halfaya, which was deemed as a main stronghold for the Nusra Front fighters in the central region.
The army's recapture of the Halfaya is crucial given the importance of the town's location in the central region and enables the Syrian troops to cut the supply lines of the rebels in the countryside of Hama.
According to the UN, the conflict in Syria has led to more than 190,000 deaths. Three million people have fled to neighboring countries in search of refuge, while another 6.5 million displaced inside their conflict-ridden homeland.