“Daesh [ISIS] has managed to drive out regime troops from the administrative borders of Raqqa province after a fierce counter-offensive,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported.
ISIS launched this counter-offensive late on Sunday as the regime forces closed in on the town of Tabqa, home to a former airbase and Syria’s largest dam. Tabqa is 40 kilometers upstream, west, of the provincial capital city of Raqqa, ISIS’s primary city stronghold in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory reported on Monday that the regime has been forced to 40km from Tabqa airport after previously being only 7km away from it.
Fearing losing Tabqa - and the regime successfully securing a foothold in Raqqa for the first time since August 2014 - ISIS poured hundreds reinforcements into that key town from Raqqa city.
The Observatory estimates that 40 of the regime forces were killed, including an officer, while no fewer than 21 ISIS militants were killed. This brings the total casualties in the regimes Raqqa offensive to 93 dead regime forces and 126 dead ISIS militants, according to the Observatory’s estimates.
Damascus launched the offensive into Raqqa in early June with Russian air support. The Russians previously helped the regime retake the ancient city of Palmyra from ISIS late last March.
