The Syrian army has recaptured a gas field east of the central city of Homs that was seized by fighters from Islamic State earlier this month, according to state media and opposition activists. Syrian television showed footage of soldiers running and deploying in a vast desert area which it said was the Shaer gas field in the desert region of Palmyra. Mahmoud al-Homsi, an activist opposed to President Bashar al-Assad’s government, confirmed to Al Jazeera via Skype from Homs that the army was now in control of the field. The Syrian army, in a statement on Sunday, said it retook the field after a “precise operation in which dozens of terrorists were killed”. However, a source from the Islamic State said the fighters pulled out after destroying the gas field’s equipment and capturing at least 15 tanks and dozens of rockets which were used to guard the facility. “We […]