These are the deadliest attacks since August. Thirty members of the pro-regime forces were killed during a series of simultaneous raids carried out at dawn on Wednesday by the Islamic State (IS) group in the vast Syrian desert where its militants are hiding, an NGO said. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), “four soldiers and 26 members of the National Defense Forces”, an auxiliary militia of the army, died. According to the director of the OSDH, the toll is expected to rise, with some of the injured being in serious condition.
The automatic weapons attacks occurred in the Al Rasafa region of the Badia, the vast desert that stretches from the central province of Homs to the eastern border with Iraq, passing through the province of Deir Ezzor.
Russian air raids
The NGO based in the United Kingdom but which has a vast network of sources in the country at war indicated that the Russian air force had subsequently carried out raids on the positions where IS fighters were found in the desert, causing victims. The Russian army supports the Syrian regime and has two military bases in the country, an air base in Hmeimim and a naval base at the port of Tartus.
ISIS has recently intensified its attacks in Syria, particularly from the desert areas where its fighters have retreated after the loss in 2019 of the vast territories it controlled in this country.