Dozens of Syrian regime troops and Islamic State fighters have been in fighting around Deir Ezzor air base in eastern Syria in a region that is a stronghold for the jihadists, activists and monitoring groups said on Thursday.
Islamic State used at least two car bombs in its latest attack on the air base near the city of Deir Ezzor, where regime troops are holed up, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
According to the group that tracks war in Syria at least 18 soldiers and 36 Islamic State fighters had been killed. The base is one of Bashar al-Assad's last footholds in eastern Syria. There was no mention of the attack on state media.
ISIS news feeds said the hardline group has captured an artillery battalion near the city's military airport.
Saray Ed-Din al-Deiri, local media activist, told Zaman al-Wasl that regime army has targeted ISIS fighters with toxic gas bombs, many of suffocation cases reported by medics of the next door city of al-Mayadeen.
After more than four years of war, Assad's sway is now mostly confined the cities of western Syria, with the rest held by Islamic State, other insurgent groups, or a Kurdish militia, which controls much of the north.
On Wednesday, Syrian state TV said regime troops had quit the Abu al-Duhur air base in the northwesterly Idlib province after a two-year siege by insurgents including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, Reuters reported.
Deir Ezzor province borders territories in Iraq that are also controlled by Islamic State, and its oilfields are a major source of revenue for the group.
A U.S.-led coalition has been attacking Islamic State from the air in Deir Ezzor and the neighboring Raqqa province.
Islamic State used at least two car bombs in its latest attack on the air base near the city of Deir Ezzor, where regime troops are holed up, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
According to the group that tracks war in Syria at least 18 soldiers and 36 Islamic State fighters had been killed. The base is one of Bashar al-Assad's last footholds in eastern Syria. There was no mention of the attack on state media.
ISIS news feeds said the hardline group has captured an artillery battalion near the city's military airport.
Saray Ed-Din al-Deiri, local media activist, told Zaman al-Wasl that regime army has targeted ISIS fighters with toxic gas bombs, many of suffocation cases reported by medics of the next door city of al-Mayadeen.
After more than four years of war, Assad's sway is now mostly confined the cities of western Syria, with the rest held by Islamic State, other insurgent groups, or a Kurdish militia, which controls much of the north.
On Wednesday, Syrian state TV said regime troops had quit the Abu al-Duhur air base in the northwesterly Idlib province after a two-year siege by insurgents including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, Reuters reported.
Deir Ezzor province borders territories in Iraq that are also controlled by Islamic State, and its oilfields are a major source of revenue for the group.
A U.S.-led coalition has been attacking Islamic State from the air in Deir Ezzor and the neighboring Raqqa province.
Zaman Al Wasl
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