Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People also re-gained fully the control of international road of al-Hasake-Ras al-Ayn, the report added.

On Friday, the army also continued its mop-up operations against the militants in town of al-Nabk in the Qalamoun region, finding a great deal of arms and ammunitions.

Also in the neighborhood of Yabrud, near the border with Lebanon, the Syrian army troops surrounded the area to avoid fleeing of militant groups to other neighboring areas. The troops stormed the militants’ hideouts in the region, killing a number of them.

The army units have battled foreign-backed militants in the countryside of the capital Damascus for several days.

On Wednesday, the Syrian government forces carried out large-scale operations in the cities of Aleppo, Idlib and Homs, killing or injuring a number of the militants.

Army troops also took control of the strategic Damascus-Homs highway after seizing most of the town of al-Nabk in the Qalamoun region.

A recent British study conducted by the defense consultancy, IHS Jane's showed that about 100,000 militants, fragmented into 1,000 groups, are fighting in Syria against the government and people.

According to the extracts of the study, published on September 16, some 10,000 militants are fighting for groups affiliated with al-Qaeda such as al-Nusra Front and the rest fight for different militant groups.

NJF/NJF