Daesh attacks Syrian state-held areas, 31 killed

BEIRUT: The Daesh group attacked several government-held villages in central Syria on Thursday, capturing at least one of them in violence that left dozens of people dead, including three members of the same family.

The attack in the central Hama province targeted villages, raising fears that the extremists might massacre them, as they have in other minority communities in Syria and Iraq.

The villages are located near the highway that links the capital, Damascus, to the northern city of Aleppo, but state media said traffic was not affected by the clashes.

Government forces are on the offensive against the extremists in other parts of Syria, mostly in the northern province of Aleppo and the central Homs region. US-backed and Kurdish-led forces are meanwhile marching toward the extremists’ de-facto capital of Raqqa, in northern Syria.

Syria’s state news agency SANA said troops and pro-government gunmen repelled the Daesh attack on villages in Hama province, adding that the militants also tried to attack the DamascusAleppo highway but were repelled there as well.

The Britain- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Daesh captured several army positions as well as the village of Aqareb Al-Safi, killing 19 troops and 12 civilians. It said troops launched a counteroffensive under the cover of airstrikes.

The Observatory said the 31 killed include a man and his two sons slain in the village of Mabouja, adding that others are believed to have been killed as well.