Syrian opposition clashed with ISIS militants in Daraa

 Increasing clashes have been witnessed in Daraa’s western countryside between Khalid Bin Al Waleed Army loyal to ISIS extremist group on one hand and Syrian opposition factions, as they led to a large number of killings and injuries among the fighters from both parties.

According to activists, the clashes, which began on Monday, took place between the factions of the Free Syrian Army, the Revolutionary Army and factions from the Southern Front on the one hand and the Khalid Army on the other. They focused on the outskirts of the towns of Glenn and Adwan, in addition to Tel Ashtara, as the Free Army used heavy artillery, rocket launchers and anti-tank guns.

Some activists said that at least four militants, including a battalion commander, were killed by the factions, while others reported the deaths of eight faction militants, including two commanders, and six others injured. Sources revealed that the fighting resulted in a limited advance of the factions in the vicinity of the village of Glenn, as the Army of Khalid maintains control of the towns and villages of Shagara, Nafta, Tseil and the Golan in addition to Glenn in the area of Yarmouk Basin.

Syrian Army troops in the eastern countryside of Homs have extended their operations in the area, and captured new territories, after inflicting heavy human and material losses on the Islamic State terrorists, Syrian News reported on Monday.

A security source told SANA that Army troops extended their military operations in the eastern countryside of Homs, and recaptured Talat al-Medraj and three other areas southeast of Umm al-Sarj, in the eastern countryside of Homs.

Furthermore, military operations also resulted in the elimination of several members of the Islamic State group, as well as destroying their weapons and ammunition, the source added. Last week, army forces recaptured four important strategic locations, west of al-Talila Protectorate, east of Palmyra.

In the same context, Hundreds of Syrian rebels began leaving the besieged Damascus district of Barzeh on Monday as part of an evacuation deal with the government, state media and a war monitor reported. State television said fighters and their relatives had started departing Barzeh for rebel-held Idlib province in northwest Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitoring group, said buses had arrived in Barzeh at dawn and hundreds of fighters and family members had started to board them. More people would leave over the next five days, state TV and the Observatory said.

A military spokesman from the Jaish al-Islam rebel group confirmed the evacuation had begun, but said his faction had not taken part in any negotiations about it. The spokesman, Hamza Birqdar, said the government had concluded the deal with a civilian committee in Barzeh.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has promoted the use of such evacuations, along with what his government calls “reconciliation” deals for rebel-held areas that surrender to the government, as a way of reducing bloodshed.

However, the United Nations has criticized both the use of siege tactics which precede such deals and the evacuations themselves as amounting to forcible displacement. Barzeh, at the northeast edge of Damascus and near the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta pocket of towns and farms, has been the site of intense fighting in recent months. On Sunday, the Syrian army advanced under intense bombardment in the Qaboun district, which adjoins Barzeh in the same besieged enclave, the Observatory said.