Rebels seize Syrian town from IS

BEIRUT: Rebels seized a town in southern Syria from groups loyal to Islamic State just a day after fighters captured another town from the hardline militants in a separate insurgent assault in the north, a rebel source and a monitoring group said.

The rebels had by late on Friday taken control of Tasil in Deraa province that is near the Jordanian border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the source and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

They drove out fighters from the Yarmouk Martyrs’ Brigade and the Muthanna Movement, which they said were groups loyal to Islamic State.

"Our battle continues against them, until we have cleansed the area of them," said Abu Ghiath al-Shami, a spokesman for the Alwiyat Seif al-Sham group that is part of a rebel alliance in the south.

He described the latest attacks against the hardline jihadists as a "widened campaign against Daesh", using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

It was the second blow dealt by insurgents fighting against Islamic State or Islamic State-linked fighters in as many days.

In a separate assault in the north of the country near the Turkish border on Thursday, rebel forces took over a town that had been the main stronghold of Islamic State in the northern Aleppo countryside.

A cessation of hostilities agreement in Syria that began on Feb 27 has slowed fighting in some areas in western Syria but has not halted the violence. Islamic State and the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front are not included in the truce. The Syrian army and its allies, backed by Russian air power, are separately fighting against Islamic State.