Assad’s forces push into key IS stronghold in eastern Syria

Syrian government forces pushed into one of the last remaining urban strongholds of the Islamic State group in the country’s east on Friday, following days of fierce fighting and intense Russian airstrikes that involved cruise missiles from the Mediterranean, activists and officials said.

The push into the town of Mayadeen came as al-Qaida-linked fighters attacked a key central Syrian village at the crossroads between areas under government control and those controlled by insurgents, activists said.

Taking Mayadeen would mark another blow to the extremist group, which has lost wide areas of Iraq and Syria in its self-declared caliphate over the past year.

Fierce battles are still expected in the town that over the past months became one of the extremists’ main centres after losing other strongholds in Iraq and Syria.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Syrian forces and allied militiamen entered western parts of Mayadeen, including the town’s wheat silos compound and the sheep market.

The Russian state RIA Novosti news agency quoted a Syrian army general as saying that the Syrian forces have fought their way into Mayadeen.

The agency quoted the unidentified officer as saying that the army entered the western neighbourhoods of the town on Friday.