Several Syrian soldiers injured as govt. forces advance in Dara’a

Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that a bomber detonated his explosive belt on Saturday afternoon as the army unit was raiding a terrorist hideout in the village of Maliha al-Atash, which lies in the Hauran plain and northeast of the provincial capital city of Dara’a.
 
The report added that the explosion led to the injury of a number of soldiers, who were taken to the city of al-Sanamayn to receive medical treatment.
 
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, however, said six soldiers were killed and several other people wounded in the attack.
 
The Britain-based group added that a bomber, who was riding a motorcycle, detonated his explosives at a military checkpoint.
 
The development came a day after Syrian troopers targeted the artillery positions of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Takfiri terrorist group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, and the so-called Jaysh al-Izza (Army of Glory) militants on the outskirts of Murak, Kafr Zita, al-Lataminah, al-Jebin and Hesrata towns in the northern part of Dara’a province.
 
SANA reported that scores of the foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists were killed or injured in the process. The militants’ fortified positions and vehicles were destroyed in the operations as well.
 
Elsewhere in Sheer Maghar area of the west-central province of Hama, Syrian government forces repelled an attack by a group of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham terrorists, inflicting losses upon them.
 
Separately, Syrian troopers pounded militants’ fortified positions in the northwestern city of Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, located 57 kilometers north of Hama, killing a number of extremists and destroying their mortar and rocket launch pads.
 
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the country.
 
In recent months, foreign-backed terrorists have been suffering heavy defeats in battles against Syrian government forces, backed by the Russian air force and Iranian military advisers.