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Isis kills 128 civilians in 'revenge' surprise counter attack on Syrian town Isis kills 128 civilians in 'revenge' surprise counter attack on Syrian town
(35 minutes later)
Isis has killed at least 128 people in a Syrian town deep inside regime-held territory, a human rights monitor has said.Isis has killed at least 128 people in a Syrian town deep inside regime-held territory, a human rights monitor has said.
Government forces managed to retake al-Qaratayn over the weekend, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed on Monday. Government forces managed to retake al-Qaratayn over the weekend, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) confirmed on Monday.
 Rumours of execution-style killings of civilians suspected of links to the government or police had not previously been verified.  Rumours of execution-style killings of captured soldiers or civilians suspected of links to the government had not previously been verified.
Al-Qaratayn, some 300 kilometres (190 miles) from one of Isis' strongholds of Deir Ezzor, was recaptured by militants in a surprise attack earlier this month.  Al-Qaratayn, some 300 kilometres (190 miles) from one of Isis' strongholds of Deir Ezzor, was recaptured by militants in an unexpected attack far from the front lines earlier this month. 
At least 153 Syrian army soldiers and fighters from allied militias such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah lost their lives over five days of heavy fighting for the Homs province town, the UK-based SOHR previously said. 
While the militants' counter offensive took Bashar al-Assad's forces by surprise, it came as the group continued to steadily lose control of its once-huge empire across both Syria and Iraq. 
Last week, Isis' de facto capital of Raqqa was declared free of the jihadists after a four-month-long battle by US-backed Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The Syrian government managed to break through the Isis siege on the eastern town of Deir Ezzor in August. 
Isis was previously forced out of al-Qaryatayn in April 2016 after seizing it in August 2015.
Syria's complex civil war is now in its seventh year. Almost 500,000 people have died in the violence, the UN estimates, and half the country's population of 19 million driven from their homes.