Syria forces retake key junction leading to ISIL-held Raqqah
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In this file photo taken on February 17, 2016, a volunteer fighter with the Syrian government forces sits atop a tank in Raqqah Province.
The Syrian army and allied forces have wrested control of a strategic crossroads leading to the northern city of Raqqah, the ISIL Takfiri terror group’s main stronghold.
The Friday recapture was the first marked advance by the army into Syria’s north-central Raqqah Province.
Last Saturday, they entered the province for the first time since 2014, when ISIL unleashed its campaign of terror on the Arab country.
The capture of the junction, which also leads to Tabqa, another ISIL -held city in Raqqah, was the climax of a week-long army push with the backing of Russian fighter jets.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said Syrian forces were now 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Tabqa, which itself lies some 50 km west of Raqqah City.
The Syrian army said large numbers of the terrorists were killed during the Friday conquest. The monitor put the death toll among the ISIL terrorists at 80.
SS
