The Syrian army said Monday it had recaptured a major residential quarter in Hassakeh from ISIL terrorists who stormed the strategically located northeastern city last week and drove out thousands of civilians

The Syrian army said Monday it had recaptured a major residential quarter in Hassakeh from ISIL terrorists who stormed the strategically located northeastern city last week and drove out thousands of civilians.

Syrian state television said in a newsflash the army had now "cleansed" the southern Hassakeh district of Nashwa of ISIL militants, who hold large tracts of Syria's east but mainly the more thinly populated countryside.

Earlier Monday, a Syrian army source said ISIL suicide bombers blew up two trucks in the southeastern district of Ghwyran and a fire erupted at petroleum storage tanks and a textile firm following shelling by the militants.

State television quoted the army source as saying ISIL had targeted a major roundabout and an area around a mosque in Ghwyran, among the districts entered by the insurgents in their bid to seize government-held parts of Hassakeh.

The army source said a number of "martyrs fell ... Fire erupted at the (textile) plant and a number of storage tanks," the source said, without giving further details.