The Syrian forces advanced in Eastern Ghouta in the countryside of Damascus on Sunday, the Arabic-language Syria Now news website reported.

It further noted that the Syrian army fully retook a strategic air base in southern Aleppo, inflicting heavy losses on Takfiri elements.

Army units also established control over a number of farms in Syria’s southwestern town of Khan al-Shih and Zakia on the edge of Damascus.

Meanwhile, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported that the Syrian air force destroyed places of gathering and vehicles belonging to terrorists and killed many of them in al-Ameriya, Tal Dahab, al-Rastan and elsewhere around al-Shaer Gas Field in Homs countryside.

A Syrian army unit also destroyed a militant hideout and killed several terrorists in al-Naziheen camp and al-Abbassiya neighborhood in the southwestern province of Daraa.

In another development on Sunday, a blast rocked a market in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah, leaving a number of people dead and injured, the state TV reported.

Since March 2011, Syria has been hit by militancy it blames on some Western states and their regional allies. Backed by the Russian air cover, the Syrian military is engaged in an operation to rid the country of Daesh and other terrorist groups.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura have put the death toll from the Syria conflict at more than 300,000 and 400,000, respectively.

This is while the UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources, Press TV reported.

219