Syrian president reshuffles cabinet as anti-terror fight nears end

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has reshuffled his cabinet as the government’s counter-terrorism operation is nearing an end.

In a decree carried by Syria’s official SANA news agency on Monday, Assad changed the ministers of interior affairs, industry, water resources, internal trade and consumer protection, communications and technology, public works and housing, education, higher education and tourism.

The Syrian president also ordered the formation of the National Reconciliation Commission to replace the current Ministry of National Reconciliation.

Ali Haidar, ex-Syrian minister of reconciliation, was further renamed as the head of the new reconciliation body.

Additionally, in the same decree, Assad changed the governor of Damascus.

The cabinet shake-up comes at a time when Syrian army soldiers, backed by the Russian air force and Iranian military advisers, have been making sweeping gains against foreign-backed terrorists, who have been wreaking havoc in the Arab country since 2011.

The pro-government forces now control most parts of Syria while anti-Damascus militants occupy just small pockets of territory in the war-stricken state.