DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — The advance is complicated by the rising dust storm, the military said. The army has seized control of several strategic positions on the highway to Raqqa, the Daesh (Islamic state) capital in Syria since 2014.
Al-Tabqah lies some 34 miles west of Raqqa. The Syrian general told Sputnik that the advancing troops were able to kill an unidentified number of Daesh militants and pushed them deeper into the province.
"A group of Daesh militants got disoriented by a dust storm, so the army tracked and eliminated them," the general said, adding Syrian troops suffered no casualties.
