The Islamic State on Saturday recaptured the town in eastern Syria that the country’s Army had freed from its control two days earlier, AFP reported. On Thursday, the Army had declared victory over the terror group as it liberated Albu Kamal, the group’s last urban stronghold in the country.
“Islamic State fully recaptured Albu Kamal, and regime forces and allied militia are now between 1-2 km from the city limits,” AFP quoted Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman as saying.
The monitoring group also said that the fresh artillery fire by security forces and Russian air strikes have killed 26 civilians, including nine children, since Friday night in the city.
Meanwhile, a video, released online by the Islamic State’s news agency on Friday, showed its fighters battling the Army near al-Bukamal [Albu Kamal], Al Jazeera reported. The video has the title, “Syrian regime forces fail to enter Albu Kamal city for the third day in a row.”
Apart from Albu Kamal, the Islamic State still controls some villages and desert areas near the city. The group had seized large parts of Syria in 2014, further worsening the civil war in the country that was going on since 2011.
This comes weeks after the Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the United States-led coalition, recaptured Raqqa from the Islamic State after an offensive that went on for four months. The terror outfit had declared Raqqa its headquarters after taking control of it early in 2014.
The Islamic State group first lost its Iraqi stronghold in Mosul in July. In the nine months of fighting that preceded this victory in Iraq, more than a million people were killed, thousands of civilians were displaced and large parts of the city was destroyed.
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