ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least three fighters of a pro-regime militia were killed in an attack by Islamic State (ISIS) gunmen in the desert of Syria’s central Homs province, a war monitor reported on Saturday. “Three members of regime-backed gunmen were killed after ISIS attacked their military vehicles near al-Habil oil field in Homs,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor. The attack is the latest in a spike of deadly ISIS attacks since the beginning of the year. The jihadists have carried out 174 attacks since January, killing 404 Syrian army and pro-regime fighters, particularly in the desert regions of the country. The Syrian army has carried out an expansive sweeping operation in areas where ISIS remains active, in response to a rise in deadly jihadist attacks. Russia has provided air support for the campaign. ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring its so-called “caliphate”. While the group was declared territorially defeated in Syria in 2019, it still continues to pose serious security risks through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions, especially across the vast expanses of the Syrian desert.
