More than 1,400 residential areas in Syria were freed from militant extremists of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) during Russia’s participation in the fighting, Head of the Russian National Defense Management Center Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev said on Tuesday. One year ago on this day, the Russian armed forces completed its operation of mopping up terror groups in Syria. “In total, 1,411 settlements were liberated during the operation with Syrian government troops and militia having retaken more than 96.5 percent of the country’s territory,” TASS quoted Mizintsev as saying. He was speaking at a joint meeting of the interdepartmental coordination of the Russian and Syrian headquarters for the return of refugees.