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.jpg) Syrian troops have taken full control of a town near the highway linking the capital Damascus with Jordan, a new advance in the government's campaign to drive foreign-backed rebels from the strategic south, an activist group said on Monday.
The militants fighting against the Syrian government are trying to carve a pathway from the Jordanian border through the southern province of Daraa, in what is seen as their best shot at capturing Damascus, The Associated Press reported.
A few weeks ago, they scored significant gains, but have since suffered setbacks in a government counteroffensive.
In recent days, government troops and rebel fighters battled over Khirbet Ghazaleh, a town near the Damascus-Jordan highway.
Government forces retook Khirbet Ghazaleh on Sunday and rebels withdrew from the area, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Troops reopened the highway, restoring the supply line between Damascus and the contested provincial capital of Daraa, he said. Government forces were carrying out raids and searching homes on Monday in Khirbet Ghazaleh.
The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of soldiers and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
In an interview recently broadcast on Turkish television, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that if the militants take power in Syria, they could destabilize the entire Middle East region for decades.
“If the unrest in Syria leads to the partitioning of the country, or if the terrorist forces take control, the situation will inevitably spill over into neighboring countries and create a domino effect throughout the Middle East and beyond,” he added.
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