Army establishes control over Uqayribat town in Hama countryside, raids ISIS barricade in Deir Ezzor

Provinces – The Army and Armed Forces reestablished control over Uqayribat town in Hama province, a military source announced on Sunday.

The source told SANA that army units, in cooperation with supporting forces, established control over Uqayribat town, Masaada village, Rasm Qanbar farm and the area surrounding them in the eastern countryside of Hama.

The source pointed out that the liberation of Uqayribat town came after intensive military operations on the positions of the terrorist organization, which was in a state of collapse and its members were fleeing en masse from the battlefield as a result of operations in which dozens of terrorists were killed or injured.

According to the source, the army’s engineering units are dismantling the landmines and IEDs planted by the terrorists on the streets of Uqayribat.

 Meanwhile, SANA said that Uqayribat has become completely safe, while violent clashes took place between the army and small isolated groups of ISIS near Massoud village and some other villages surrounding the town.

SANA added that more than 120 terrorists were killed during the liberation operation, noting that army units started to advance from Uqayribat towards Hamadi Omar village to the west of the town with the aim establishing control over it, as it’s considered the second largest hotbed of ISIS in the eastern countryside of Hama.

Deir Ezzor

An army unit raided one of ISIS terrorists’ barricades on the southwestern outskirts of Deir Ezzor city.

A military source told SANA that an army unit operating in Deir Ezzor killed in a successful raid in the direction of the Water Resources Department area a number of ISIS terrorists and seized the weapons and ammunition that were in their possession.

One of the soldiers who participated in the raid said “We carried out at dawn a successful raid against one of ISIS terrorists’ barricades in the direction of the Water Resources area through crawling and infiltrating it and throwing several bombs when we almost approached the area, killing all the terrorists at the site.”

Another soldier said that the weapons and ammunition that were in the ISIS terrorists’ possession at the barricade were seized, including an RPG launcher and 3 charges with their launchers, a night binocular and a machine gun.

Meanwhile, army units, in cooperation with the supporting forces, have expanded control deeper in al-Badia region after earlier arriving at the administrative border to Deir Ezzor province from the direction of al-Sukhneh city.

SANA said that the army units, backed by fire support helicopters, continued pursing ISIS terrorists deeper into al-Badia deep, eliminating the last gatherings of the organization in Hreibsha area that is located in the southwest of Deir Ezzor province.

The operations resulted in killing or injuring many of the ISIS terrorists and destroying their last fortifications in Hreibsha area, noting that the army units have consolidated their military points there after having dismantled the IEDs and mines planted by the terrorists in the area.

SANA’s camera accompanied the army units’ operations as they advanced east of al-Sukhneh towards Deir Ezzor and monitored the difficulty of the military operations there due to the rugged geographical nature of the region and the large high mountains where ISIS had dug many tunnels that included command centers and field hospitals.

In another context, local sources in the western countryside of Deir Ezzor said that ISIS terrorists are in a state of confusion and collapse after 72 of them were killed in airstrikes on their gatherings and movements over the past two days.

The sources added that more terrorist groups of ISIS have fled, including the so-called “Emir of ISIS in al-Kabar”, the terrorist Ali Hajj al-Rajab , while ISIS terrorists executed seven persons in al-Bukamal city and Ghranij town and opened fire on a number of civilians at al-Hawaeyij crossing, leaving one citizen in Ayyash village dead.

Al-Boumatar village have witnessed since Sunday dawn fierce clashes between the village’s locals and ISIS terrorist groups who attacked a woman and its child while they were passing the river, according to the local sources.