ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least two Syrian regime and pro-regime fighters were killed in a desert attack by Islamic State (ISIS) gunmen in Syria’s central Homs province, a conflict monitor reported, amid an anti-ISIS operation sweeping the country.
“Members of the Islamic State attacked a gathering of regime forces near the Wadi al-Abyad Dam close to ammunition depots in Palmyra in the Homs countryside … killing two members and injuring 10 from the regime and National Defense Forces [NDF],” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based conflict monitor.
The jihadists withdrew from the area following the clashes, the monitor added.
“Four of the injured are in critical condition,” it said, with the death toll expected to rise.
Damascus, with Russian air support, has been carrying out an expansive sweeping operation in areas where ISIS remains active, with a recent rise in deadly jihadist attacks killing many Syrian government soldiers as well as pro-regime NDF fighters.
The NDF is a pro-government militia that has fought alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s army since the outbreak of the deadly Syrian civil war over a decade ago.
ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called “caliphate”.
While the group was declared territorially defeated in 2019, it still continues to pose serious security risks through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions, especially across the vast Syrian desert as well as several Iraqi provinces.
Last week, a Syrian regime officer was killed in clashes with ISIS in Homs, a day after another officer was killed by the extremists in the country’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province.
Earlier this month, at least 19 Syrian regime soldiers were killed in separate deadly ISIS attacks in the Homs desert.
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