Syrian army makes major advances in Rankus

The Syrian army made major advances in Al-Qalamoun region in Damascus countryside on Tuesday in a new operation to liberate the town of Rankus. FNA dispatches said the Syrian army has started operations to conqure the remaining bases of the militant groups in Rankus before the army's infantry units advance in the region. The Syrian army is now in the final stage of its operations in Al-Qalamoun region, reports said. Also in the past 24 hours, fierce clashes between army troops and militants raged in neighborhoods in and around the capital, Damascus, amid reports that fighting in a coastal province killed a top foreign fighter who was a former Guantanamo Bay detainee. Heavy clashes and government air raids were reported in the Damascus suburb of Mliha, as well as the capital’s Eastern Jobar neighborhood. In the coastal campaign, Syrian troops killed a Moroccan militant once detained at the US military’s Guantanamo Bay prison, private Lebanese television station Al-Mayadeen and Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar said. The stations described him as the chief of the hardline Sham al-Islam Movement. The stations said Brahim Benchakroun, better-known in Syria as Abu Ahmad al-Maghribi, was killed Wednesday while fighting government forces in Northern rural Lattakia, where rebels launched an offensive late last month, capturing several villages while also gaining their first access to the sea. American authorities handed Benchakroun over to Morocco in 2005. He was captured in Afghanistan, where he had moved in 1999, according to Islamist websites. Meantime, Italian FM Reiterates Necessity for Iran’s Presence in Upcoming Conference on Syria Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini underlined Iran’s key role in settling the Syrian crisis, and called for Tehran’s presence in any upcoming conference on Syria. "Ways should be found to involve Iran and all regional actors; otherwise, we do not go forward," the Italian foreign minister said, addressing a conference in Rome. She underlined that the Syrian crisis worries her the most, as it has lingered for three years, with the humanitarian situation getting worse. Elsewhere, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) killed scores of Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar A-Sham militants in heavy infighting in Hasaka province in Northeastern Syria. The ISIL, Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar Al-Sham continued their heavy infighting in Hasaka province on Thursday. The ISIL pushed back its rival Al-Nusra Front from its last military base in Hasaka province near Merkadeh town after the battles. Also, the Syrian army’s chief of staff paid a visit to a key military base near the country’s port city of Lattakia, praising the armed forces for their recent achievements in the area. General Ali Abdullah Ayoub, accompanied by a group of senior military officials, visited the army units stationed in Observatory 45, a strategic hilltop site situated in the Northern suburbs of Lattakia near the Turkish border. Elsewhere, the Syrian army units on Friday ambushed militants and stormed several of their dens and gatherings in various areas, razing many of them, killing scores of militants and destroying their weaponry. A military source said that the army units stormed militants' gatherings in various areas in Aleppo and its countryside, including the industrial area, Handarat, Hreitan, Be'deen, al-Jandoul, al-Atareb, al-Jazmati, Rasm al-Aboud, al-Jadida, Arbid, the area surrounding the central prison, Fifat, Babis, Mayer, al-Ta'aneh, Khan al-Assal, Kfar Naha, Kfar Da'el, Tadef and Shrei', killing and injuring scores of them, in addition to destroying a number of their cars equipped with heavy machineguns. The source added that other army units destroyed a militants' cache full of weapons and ammunition to the North of Maret al-Artiq, killing all militants inside it. Meantime, a military source said that an army unit ambushed a militant group near Fayoum town, killing all its members and destroying a car equipped with heavy machinegun. Elsewhere, a military source said that the army units targeted militants' dens and gatherings in the villages of Aqeirbat, al-Ghasbiyeh, al-Daar al-Kabira, Ein Hussein, al-Saan and Borj Qa'ai, killing and injuring many of them. Also, a source in Deir Ezzur province said that an army unit destroyed a militants' den in al-Rushdieh neighborhood in the city, killing and injuring all militants inside it. Among the dead militants were Abu Qutada from Tunisia, Hassan al-Mgheir and Manaf al-Saker. The source added that another army unit killed and injured a number of militants in the neighborhoods of al-Sinaa, the Old Airport, al-Jbaileh, al-Hamediyeh and al-Hweiqa, in addition to destroying their weapons. Adnan al-Hawas, Zuheir al-Hadi, Mus'ab Jihadi, Ali Rabah and Yusuf Amiri were identified among the dead militants. Also, a UN watchdog overseeing the removal of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal confirmed Friday that a new consignment of chemicals has been transported to the port of Lattakia and removed from Syria. "This is the first shipment since March 20," Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Ahmet Üzümcü said in statement published on the agency's website. "It is therefore important not only to follow this up with further rapid movements but also to make up for the lost time by increasing the volumes of chemicals to be removed," Üzümcü said. Sigrid Kaag, head of the joint OPCW and UN mission in Syria, told the UN Security Council Thursday that by the end of March about 53 percent of the Syrian chemical stockpile had either been removed or destroyed inside the country. However, there has been no movement of arsenals in the region since March 20 "because of the situation with security", according to UN officials.