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Syrian and allied forces backed by Russian air strikes drove Islamic State group militants out of the town of al-Qaryatain on Sunday after encircling it over the past few days, Syria's military command said.
Surrounded by hills, al-Qaryatain is 100 km (60 miles) west of the ancient city of Palmyra, which government forces recaptured from the Islamic State group last Sunday.
Al-Qaryatain had been held by the militant group since late August. Syrian President Bashar Assad has been trying to retake al-Qaryatain and other pockets of Islamic State control to reduce the jihadist group's ability to project military power into the heavily populated western region of Syria, where Damascus and other main cities are located.
In a statement read out on Syrian television, the military command said this was a strategic victory which secures oil and gas routes between the Damascus area and oilfields in eastern Syria. It also disrupts Islamic State supply routes within Syria.
When the Islamic State group took over al-Qaryatain last August it demolished a Christian monastery and took around 200 of the town's residents prisoner, transferring some of them to the Syrian city of Raqqa, the group's de facto capital.
A fragile "cessation of hostilities" truce has held in Syria for over a month as the various parties to the conflict try to negotiate an end to Syria's civil war.
But the truce excludes Islamic State and the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front. Air and land attacks by Syrian and allied forces continue in parts of Syria where the government says the groups are present.
Fierce fighting that broke out over the weekend continues south of Aleppo near the main highway linking that city with the capital, Damascus. It began when rebels and Nusra Front mounted an offensive against government forces.
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