SYRIA’S armed forces proclaimed the complete expulsion today of Isis from the vast eastern desert linking its heartland to the Iraqi border.

General Ali Mayhoub said in a televised statement that, with the help of the air force, the army achieved this task in the desert of Deir Ezzor province and would continue to chase terrorist remnants from Syria.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, led by Kurdish YPG fighters, are still battling Isis units in pockets along the Iraqi border to the north.

Other Syrian army units have continued their drive against jihadist-held areas of Daraa province, assisted by Russian air strikes, to smash al-Qaida-linked Hetesh groups that have disrupted reconciliation attempts between the government forces and other rebel formations.

The combined tactic of military advances and reconciliation procedures is designed to achieve complete retaking of the southern Daraa, Sweida and Quneitra provinces up to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Two more towns in the eastern countryside of Daraa province fell to the Syrian army yesterday afternoon when elite army forces led an advance from recently captured Nahitah and Sama al-Hadeitat to retake the two towns of Maliha al-Gharbiyah and Maliha al-Sharqiyah.

As a result, the army now finds itself on the outskirts of the rebel stronghold of Al-Hirak, the largest town in east Daraa.

In addition to reaching Al-Hirak, the army is now at the Brigade 52 Base, which it lost to rebel forces in early 2015.