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Daesh bigwigs ride out Syria airstrikes at dam

Monday, 25 January 2016 9:58 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 26 January 2016 12:27 AM ]

Syria’s Tabqa dam (Wikipedia)

Airstrikes on Syria’s Raqqah province have forced high-ranking Daesh Takfiri terrorists to take cover at the country’s largest dam where they are using civilians as human shields.

Senior Takfiri commanders are using the Tabqa Dam as a strategic safe haven because bombing it could cause devastating flooding along the banks of the Euphrates River, RT reported on Monday.

The 60-meter high and 4.5-kilometer long structure is located some 40 kilometers upstream from the city of Raqqah and controls the Euphrates flow into Iraq and Syria.

According to analysts, attempting to recapture the dam may also prove dangerous as Daesh is likely to destroy it if they lose the territory.

Middle East commentator and journalist Adel Darwish was quoted as saying that apart from causing major flooding, the dam’s destruction would also cut electrical power supplies from regions in eastern Syria.

“Most probably they are bluffing that they would go and blow up the dam. However, they are not something we’ve experienced in any other war, so we cannot really guess what their next move is,” said Darwish.

Meanwhile, Syrian government forces, supported by the Russian air force, have retaken large regions from terrorist hands in the western Latakia province, forcing them to flee towards the country’s eastern territories.

A statement released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Monday said over 90 square kilometers of land had been liberated from the terrorist group since the past 24 hours.

It added that after losing their control in the western regions, the militants are converging around the eastern city of Dayr al-Zawr. It noted that according to information provided by Syrian opposition groups, some 2,000 Takfiris have been deployed around the city.

Also on Monday, Syrian government forces fully recaptured the strategic town of Sheikh Miskin in the southern Dara’a province.

Elsewhere, at least 23 people were killed as a truck rigged with explosives went off at a Ahrar al-Sham militant check point in the northwestern city of Aleppo.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 19 terrorists and four civilians were killed in the blast that also destroyed three buildings.

Since March 2011, Syria has been grappling with foreign-sponsored militancy. Gains by the government have come at a speedier pace over the past months, especially since late September 2015, when Russia accepted a request by Damascus to dispatch its warplanes over Syria for combat sorties against positions of Takfiri terrorists.

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