State media: Syrian army takes town along north-south highway
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Syrian forces have taken took full control of Qara, a town in a region used by rebels to cross from Lebanon, which straddles a highway linking the capital to government strongholds along the coast, state media said Tuesday. Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad launched an offensive on Friday against Qara, 80 km (50 miles) north of Damascus.
Damascus is keen to secure the highway as it intends to use it to transport chemical agents from the capital to the coast for extraction as part of a US and Russian-backed program to eliminate its chemical weapons arsenal. (Reuters)
