The Syrian army has captured some areas held by Islamic State fighters in a region of the southwest near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
State media said in Beirut today that engineering units were sweeping the areas taken in the Yarmouk basin region for mines and booby traps.
Recapturing the Yarmouk basin from Islamic State would bring all of southwest Syria, long a crucible of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, back under his control along with the entire frontiers with Israel and Jordan.
APP/AFP