Syrian army captures one of ISIL's last strongholds in the country

DAMASCUS, (Patria) - Syrian government forces, along with their allies, captured the southern district of Tulul al-Safa from the armed group Islamic State of Iraq and Levant on Monday, after weeks of clashes that resulted in casualties on both sides, Al Jazeera reports.

With the capture of Tulul al-Safa, a mountainous area east of the Sweida province, Syrian troops now control a larger part of the south of the country, AP reported.

Earlier, clashes broke out for the first time between Syrian pro-Turkish rebel factions in the city of Afrin, in northern Syria, killing 25 people and wounding dozens more, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The area of Afrin, in the Aleppo province, mostly Kurdish, fell in March into the hands of the Turkish army and its Syrian allies who expelled the Kurdish forces after an offensive.

- The clashes, which began on Saturday and continued on Sunday, pit almost all rebel groups against a faction called Shuhadaa Al-Sharqiya, accused of not respecting "the decisions of the Turkish forces" - explained the director of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman.

The clashes are part of a "struggle for influence among pro-Turkish rebel groups" in Afrin, he added, emphasizing that the goal is to "eliminate Shuhadaa Al-Sharqiya".

In the clashes in several neighborhoods of the city of Afrin, 25 people were killed and dozens more were wounded on both sides, according to Abdel Rahman.