Daesh attack kills 25 regime forces in Syria

Beirut, April 19: The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ( ISIS), alo known as Daesh, group launched a surprise attack near a town in eastern Syria they had lost six months ago, killing at least 25 regime forces, a monitor said on Thursday.

At least 13 jihadists were also killed in the attack which ISIS carried out near Mayadeen on Wednesday afternoon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Mayadeen lies in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on the western bank of the Euphrates River and is flanked by the vast Badia desert to its west and south.

A military source on Thursday however denied any attack against positions of the Syrian Army along the western bank of the Euphrates.

But intermittent bombardment on army positions from its eastern bank had prompted retaliation with suitable weapons, the source said.

The US- backed Syrian Democratic Forces ( SDF), an alliance of Beirut, April 19: Syrian state media said that hundreds of rebels fighters in a town northeast of Damascus have handed in their weapons and started to leave under an evacuation deal.

Under the agreement, the rebels are allowed to move with their families to Opposition- held areas in the country's north, effectively surrendering their turf to Syrian government forces.

The state SANA news agency says the Army of Islam fighters and their families are leaving the town of Dumayr on Thursday. The report says 1,500 rebels and 3,500 of their next of kin are to leave Dumayr for the town of Jarablus, near the Turkish border. Kurdish and Arab fighters, control most of the territory to the east of the Euphrates, where a few villages are still under ISIS control.