The Syrian army on Monday recaptured the villages of Hambousheyah, al-Ballouta and Sheikh Nabhan.

“The Syrian troops eradicated the militants who infiltrated into these villages and committed crimes of slaughtering, looting and assaulting the local residents,” said a Syrian military source, whose name was not mentioned in the reports.

The source said that dozens of militants were killed during the battle, adding that some of the killed militants were Tunisians.

On August 17, the Syrian army restored security in the villages of Shakouhi and Abu-Makkah in the northern countryside of Latakia.

The Syrian forces also made advances against the militants in battlefields near the capital, Damascus.

The war in Syria started in March 2011, when pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of Western and regional states.

The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history.

As the foreign-backed insurgency in Syria continues without an end in sight, the US government has boosted its political and military support to Takfiri extremists.

SHI/SHI