Press TV - Syrian army soldiers and pro-government fighters from popular defense groups have reportedly advanced in a number of directions in the country’s semi-arid al-Badiya region, reaching very close to the border with Iraq.

Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news network, citing an unnamed military commander, reported on Monday that the army units in cooperation with allies had managed to score territorial gains, and were now only 600 meters away from the Iraqi border.

The commander added that the Syrian troops and allied forces had planned to arrive at the border with Iraq in the first phase of their major operation, and then fully purge Badiya of foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists.

He went on to say that the soldiers and their allies were now moving towards Dayr al-Zawr to break the siege on the troubled eastern city, which the Daesh Takfiri terrorists have held over the past three years.

Meanwhile, the Syrian army units have shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle in the skies over Tafas town in the southern province of Dara’a. The combat drone had reportedly been rigged with explosives.



Heavy exchanges of gunfire between Syrian government forces and Daesh extremists also killed more than 60 terrorists near the Dayr al-Zawr airport.

On June 9, Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi, the head of the Russian General Staff's Main Operations Directorate, leveled strident criticism at the US-led coalition for bombing the Syrian army, letting Daesh terrorists escape encirclement and enhancing terrorists in Palmyra and Dayr al-Zawr.

“We see that coalition's actions only prevent the government forces from defeating Daesh terrorists,” he said.

Rudskoi highlighted that the Russian military sees no significant results of the coalition's fight against terrorism.

The US and its allies have been bombarding what they say are Daesh positions inside Syria and Iraq since 2014. The coalition has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of eliminating Daesh.