GOLAN HEIGHTS: Pro-Assad forces raised the Syrian flag in Quneitra on Thursday, as the government continued its push to regain full control of the Syrian Golan Heights, strategic territory that borders Israel and Jordan.
A Reuters photographer saw uniformed men raise the Syrian national flag and the black, white, green and red flag of the Baath Party in the long-abandoned city.
No weapons were immediately visible.
The Reuters photographer was reporting from a vantage point on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that overlooks Quneitra.
Forces supporting Syrian President Bashar al Assad, backed by a Russian air campaign, have been pushing into Quneitra province following an offensive last month that routed rebels in adjoining Deraa province who were once backed by Washington, Jordan and Gulf states.
Damascus is set to recover control of the Golan in a major victory over rebels, who have agreed to surrender terms.
The army is still battling a local IS affiliate around the Yarmouk Basin nearby.
Some 510 square kilometres of the Golan remain on the Syrian side of the ceasefire line, with United Nations peacekeeping forces overseeing the buffer in between.
Syrian state news agency Sana said “army units deployed at the Flag Roundabout and inside the liberated city of Quneitra, after the end of the terrorist presence there.”
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), an alliance led by a former Al Qaeda affiliate, had held Quneitra city and the adjacent frontier with the buffer zone, which has remained sealed for decades. — Reuters
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