Beirut: Daesh on Monday retook control of a northern town along Syria’s border with Turkey, just days after losing it to rebel forces and allied militants, opposition activists said.
The recapture of Al Rai shows Daesh is still capable of launching counterattacks even as the terrorists come under pressure on different fronts in areas they control in Iraq and Syria.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Aleppo Today TV station said Daesh captured Al Rai early on Monday morning after intense fighting for the frontier town.
Al Rai is strategically located on the border with Turkey, serving as Daesh’s access point to supply lines. It also sits along the road to the Daesh stronghold in Aleppo province.
The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdul Rahman said Daesh fighters also captured six villages near Al Rai on Monday.
Daesh lost the town last Thursday after an offensive by rebels and militant groups allied with them, including Al Qaida’s branch in Syria known as Al Nusra Front.
Daesh has lost wide areas in Iraq and Syria recently, including the historic central town of Palmyra that was captured by Syrian government forces and their allies recently.
The terror groups have also suffered leadership setbacks as US drone strikes in Syria have killed several top Daesh and Al Nusra Front commanders and key figures in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Syria’s Al Qaida affiliate and allied rebels pushed offensives around northern, central and coastal Syria on Monday, triggering a spike in violence that could threaten a truce ahead of peace talks, a monitoring group said.
Neither the Al Qaida-affiliated Al Nusra Front nor Daesh are included in a truce brokered by the United States and Russia that came into force on February 27.
But the fact that rebels are fighting alongside Al Nusra in such a broad offensive, while regime forces push back, has sparked concerns over the durability of the shaky truce.
“Al Nusra and allied rebel groups are waging three synchronised offensives” on front lines in Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces, Abdul Rahman told AFP.
So far, they have seized a hilltop in Latakia province, the heartland of President Bashar Al Assad’s Alawite sect, the group said.
“This is the offensive that Al Nusra warned it would carry out several weeks ago,” Abdul Rahman said.
He was referring to a threat issued by the terrorist group when President Vladimir Putin, a key backer of Al Assad’s regime, announced the partial pullout of Russian troops from Syria last month.
A military source confirmed that an offensive was under way.
“Armed groups are trying to attack some military positions in Latakia and Hama provinces, but they have not succeeded in making any advances,” the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“The fact that the rebels could not hold on to Al Rai shows that it is impossible to maintain an advance against Daesh without adequate air cover,” Abdul Rahman said.
Syrian, Russian and US-led coalition warplanes are all staging separate air campaigns in the war-torn country.
The latest violence came ahead of a new round of peace talks in Geneva on April 13, which will see indirect negotiations between government and opposition delegations.
“Neither Al Nusra nor Daesh have an interest in the ceasefire or a peaceful solution to Syria’s war — because, should the war end, they would no longer have a role,” Abdul Rahman said.
Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests but has since evolved into a multi-front war drawing in regional powers.
