Damascus, Oct 21 (AFP) Syrian troops and militia retookthe desert town of Al-Qaryatain from the Islamic State grouptoday ending a three-week-long fightback by the jihadists,state media said.
It was the latest in a string of reverses for IS in Syriathis month that on Tuesday saw US-backed forces capture itsemblematic bastion Raqa.
The jihadists had seized Al-Qaryatain on October 1 in asurprise counteroffensive against the Homs province town whichthey had lost to Russian-backed government forces in Aprillast year.
"Units of the Syrian Arab Army in cooperation with alliedforces have restored security and stability in the town of Al-Qaryatain after eliminating the Daesh terrorists," the stateSANA news agency reported, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-basedmonitor of the war, said that more than 200 jihadists hadpulled out of the town during the night, withdrawing into thevast desert that stretches all the way to the Iraqi border.
There was no immediate word on the fate of the town'sresidents during IS's three-week reoccupation.
Al-Qaryatain was a symbol of religious coexistence beforethe civil war broke out in 2011, with some 900 Christiansamong its population of 30,000.
But during their first eight-month-long occupation of thetown in 2015-16, the Sunni Muslim extremists of IS repeatedlytargeted its Christian minority.
IS abducted 270 Christians, transporting them around 90kilometres into the desert and locking them up in anunderground dungeon. They were freed 25 days later.
The jihadists also destroyed parts of a monastery in thetown and reduced a fifth-century mud brick church to rubbleusing explosives and bulldozers.
Government forces are engaged in twin Russian-backedoffensives against IS, mopping up the last pockets it stillholds in the desert and pushing down the Euphrates Valleytowards the Iraqi border in the east. (AFP)CPS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.