国际英语新闻:Syrian troops fight fiercely to eliminate rebels in Daraa

DARAA, Syria, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian military operations in the southern province of Daraa are ongoing until eliminating all of the "terrorist" groups in the southern region, a military officer told Xinhua on Saturday.

The officer, who spoke to Xinhua on condition of anonymity, said the military operation in the triangle of the southern countryside of the capital Damascus, the countryside of Daraa and the province of Qunaitera aims at cutting the rebels' supply lines in the southern region from neighboring Jordan and Israel.

He said the broad offensive, unleashed recently, would also "prevent the Israeli enemy from achieving its goal in imposing a buffer zone on the borders with Qunaitera and would also strop the infiltration attempts by the rebels from the Jordanian borders."

The remarks came during a visit Xinhua made to the town of Habariyeh in Daraa countryside on Saturday, where the tanks of the Syrian army were rolling in amid sounds of nearby clashes and sporadic mortar shells that fell on the area by the rebels in nearby towns.

Habariyeh is close to the strategic hilltop of Tal al-Hara, whose recapture would enable the Syrian troops to expose other rebel-held towns in Daraa due to the height of that hilltop.

Military sources told Xinhua that the army is only a couple of days away from storming that hilltop amid incessant clashes nearby.

Earlier in the day, the state news agency SANA said the Syrian troops made new progress in their battles in Daraa, saying the Syrian government forces recaptured the towns of Tal Qarin and other "strategic" towns in the triangle of the northwestern countryside of Daraa, the province of Qunaitera and the southwestern of the capital Damascus.

The progress in Tal Qarin in Daraa comes after the Syrian forces "destroyed the last remaining positions of the terrorists and their collapsed allies there."

Over the current month, the Syrian forces succeeded to capture a number of strategic towns in Daraa, mainly the towns of Deir Adas, Danji and Deir Maker, as well as the Tal Mari, Tal Arous and Tal Sarjeh.

Large numbers of the rebels and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front members were killed during the wide-scale offensive.