Syria army retakes gas fields from jihadists: monitor

The Syrian army on Wednesday recaptured two key gas fields and a gas company in central Homs province, less than a week after their seizure by jihadists, a monitoring group said. "Regime forces and pro-regime militia retook control of the Jhar and Mahr gas fields, as well as the Hayyan gas company in the east of Homs province," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The facilities had fallen into the hands of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group late last week. "Jhar and Hayyan are particularly important because they feed Homs city and Damascus the gas supplies needed to produce electricity," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.