Syrian army fights back Daesh despite hostage threat

BEIRUT — Pro-Syrian government forces advanced in a Daesh-held pocket of southwest Syria on Sunday, a military media unit run by Damascus’ ally Hizbollah reported, despite a threat to hostages the extremists seized last week. 

Syrian state television broadcast footage from near the scene of the fighting showing military vehicles moving along a road. 

Daesh holds only a small area of Daraa province near the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, after army advances last week that forced it to retreat. 

The group staged a sudden coordinated attack on Wednesday on the city of Sweida and nearby villages from a separate pocket approximately 65 km from Daraa, killing more than 200 people, including many civilians, and seizing some women as hostages. 

A war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the army had bombarded the remaining Daesh territory in Daraa province. The Hizbollah media unit said the Syrian army had advanced towards the town of Al Shajara. 

A non-Syrian source close to Damascus said the army had paused its offensive early on Sunday, but that this was for logistical reasons rather than because of the hostages. 

An informal communications channel had been opened with extremists to try to release the hostages, the source said. 

The observatory reported air strikes against Daesh positions east of Sweida, the city the militants attacked last week.