Beirut, Dec 7 (AFP) Syrian government troops and alliedmilitia have cleared the last pockets held by the IslamicState group on the west bank of the Euphrates River, a monitorsaid today.
But the jihadists still hold areas on the east bank inthe north of oil-rich Deir Ezzor province, the SyrianObservatory for Human Rights said.
"Daesh no longer has a presence on the western side ofthe river," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, usingan Arabic acronym for IS.
"Its biggest presence is on the eastern side of theEuphrates, where it still holds around eight percent of DeirEzzor province," he said.
State news agency SANA said late Wednesday that Syriantroops and allied forces had captured around two dozen townsand villages on the west side of the river.
East of the Euphrates, IS is under attack by bothgovernment troops and Kurdish-led militia.
IS also has a presence in eastern parts of the centralprovinces of Homs and Hama, and in the Yarmuk Palestinian campnear Damascus, while an allied group holds positions in thesouth. (AFP)CPS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.