SYRIA’S armed forces and allied militias drove Isis forces before them yesterday in a surprise large-scale offensive spanning eastern Qalamoun in Damascus province and Palmyra in the east of Homs province.

Nearly 500 square miles were captured in the blitz offensive that saw several villages and strategic hilltops taken, as well as the key target of Bardah that lies a few miles to the west of Busairi Crossroads.

Dozens of Isis militants were killed or injured as the morale-exhausted insurgents were unable to cope with the new fronts opening up against them.