A war monitor said at least 34 Syrian soldiers and pro-government fighters were killed in an Islamic State attack in the central desert in one of the deadliest assaults by the group this year.
At least 34 Syrian soldiers and pro-government fighters were killed and several others injured in one of the deadliest attacks attributed to the Islamic State in Syria, a war monitor reported on Wednesday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that early on Wednesday, ISIS members launched simultaneous attacks on positions of the Syrian army and the government’s paramilitary National Defense Forces in an area between Raqqa, Homs and Deir ez-Zor, in the central Syrian desert of al-Rasafah.
In response, Russian warplanes launched a series of airstrikes against ISIS positions in the area, killing at least seven militants, said the UK-based monitor.
The Syrian army has yet to comment on the news and ISIS has not claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
The Syrian army, backed by Russian airstrikes, has been conducting a campaign against ISIS sleeper cells that have been holed up in Syria’s desert since the fall of the group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa in March 2019, following an operation by the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
Despite losing its territory, ISIS continues to launch sporadic attacks against Syrian government and SDF forces.
In August, ISIS militants attacked a Syrian military convoy in the eastern countryside of Hama, leaving at least seven people dead, including civilians.
Later that same month, at least 33 Syrian soldiers were killed in an ISIS attack on an army bus in the desert near Mayadeen in Deir ez-Zor province.
According to data collected by the war monitor, 518 people have been killed in clashes and military operations in the Syrian desert since the start of this year, including civilians, government soldiers and allied fighters as well as ISIS militants.
The latest attack comes amid regional tensions sparked by the Israel-Hamas war. Israel launched its offensive on the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’ incursion into southern Israel Oct. 7. Since then, pro-Iranian forces in the region have joined the battle. Several rockets have been fired from Syrian territory toward Israel. The Israeli army responded by striking positions in southern Syria and targeting the Aleppo and Damascus airports in an apparent attempt to disrupt Iranian supply lines in Syria.
Meanwhile, US bases in Syria and Iraq have been subjected to a series of rocket and drone attacks claimed by Iran-backed groups.