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An offensive in the Deir Ezzor province launched by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the international coalition led by Washington, in February 2019. REUTERS / Rodi Said / File Photo

ISIS has launched a violent attack on Syrian army positions in the al-Mayadeen desert, southeast of the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. A Syrian military source says the fighting has killed and wounded both sides.

With our correspondent in Beirut , Paul Khalifeh

Not a day goes by without sources close to Damascus or the Syrian opposition reporting attacks by jihadists against government troops in eastern Syria.

The fighters of the Islamic State group are active in a vast desert area covering a quarter of Syria, a country of 180,000 square kilometers. They strike as well in the west of the Euphrates, in areas controlled by the Syrian army and its allies, as in the east of the river, in the regions of the Syrian Democratic Forces, supported by Washington, before disappearing in the desert.

Point of gravity

The situation reached such a point of gravity that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards evacuated many positions around the city of Boukamal, on the border with Iraq.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which reports the news, indicates that the Pardaran and pro-government Syrian militias have suffered heavy losses, a hundred dead and wounded, in recent weeks in attacks jihadists.

In early August, a Pentagon report claimed that ISIS, which has rebuilt its forces, would have 14,000 to 18,000 combatants in Syria and Iraq.