Damascus: As many as 50 rebels were killed in the Syrian province of Daraa by Syrian troops on Friday, media reported.
This operation was part of the military's ongoing showdown with the rebels along the country's borders with Jordan, Xinhua reported, citing Syrian state news agency SANA.
The Syrian forces heavily shelled the positions of the extremist groups in the countryside of Daraa, mainly the strategic town of Sheikh Miskin, and the shelling led to the death of two rebel commanders, according to the report.
The radical rebels, mainly of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, had recently unleashed a wide-scale offensive to seize control over Sheikh Miskin, where two journalists were killed recently.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based information office opposed to the Syrian government, said that clashes have started again, between the government troops and the Islamic State (IS) militants around the airbase in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour.
The Syrian troops have so far protected the airbase, the last lifeline of the Syrian army in the oil-rich Deir al-Zour province, where large chunks of terrain had fallen to the IS in recent months.
The Syrian crisis has been dragging on for over three and a half years with no sign of tapering down.
The crisis has become more complicated when the radical groups capitalised on the chaotic situation to achieve territorial gains.
