Russia says Syria control has doubled

BEIRUT — The Syrian government has increased the size of the territory under its control by 2½ times in just two months, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Sunday, as Syrian forces backed by regional allies and the Russian air force seized thousands of square miles from the Islamic State group in the center of the country.

Syrian government forces supported by Iranian-organized militias and the Russian air force have recaptured much of the country’s central Homs province from the Islamic State group in 2017.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported Sunday that government forces killed at least 25 IS militants in a commando operation in the desert region. It said the soldiers rappelled down from helicopters to ambush the militants, under the cover of Russian air strikes.

Russia has provided air support for Syrian forces since 2015.

Elsewhere, rebel faction Failaq al-Rahman said it killed 20 army soldiers outside the Syrian capital in a tunnel blast as the battle for Damascus’s northeastern suburbs showed no signs of letting up.

On Saturday, seven members of the Syrian Civil Defense, a group also known as the White Helmets who dig people out of rubble after airstrikes, were shot dead in their office in Idlib by unknown attackers, the group said on Twitter.