Syria: pro-regime soldiers and militiamen killed in IS group ambush
Syrian army soldiers in Deir Ezzor, October 31, 2017 (illustrative image).
STRINGER / AFP
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2 min
At least seven Syrian soldiers and nineteen pro-government militiamen killed in fighting against ISIS near the town of Al-Mayadin, not far from the border with Iraq, in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
The jihadists have lost eleven fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
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With our correspondent in Beirut,
Paul Khalifeh
The units of the Syrian army and the Palestinian al-Quds brigade were ambushed as they scoured a desert area east of the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, bordering Iraq.
The Syrian army and its allies have routed significant reinforcements to the region, but despite the
offensives
they are waging in the central desert with the support of the Russian air force, the Islamic State group has been stepping up its attacks for three months on a vast territory, stretching from the provinces of Homs and Hama to the border with Iraq.
The United Nations estimates that 10,000 jihadists are operational in Iraq and Syria.
The Islamic State group has lost more than 700 fighters in the Syrian desert since its defeat in March 2019. Damascus troops and their allies deplore more than 1,400 dead.
The jihadists recruit from local tribes and have been influential in the camps where their supporters and their families are gathered since the
fall of the
self-proclaimed
"caliphate"
in March 2019.
In the
al-Hol camp
, controlled by the Kurds, the Islamic State group imposes its law on the 60,000 residents, including more than 10,000 foreigners.
Since the start of the year, 14 people have been murdered there for collaboration with the Kurdish administration and UN agencies.
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