ISIS kills 27 regime fighters in eastern Homs

(Zaman Al Wasl)- ISIS killed 27 Syrian soldiers and allied militiamen in a series of attacks near Palmyra in the past 24 hours, activists said Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said ISIS began launching attacks on regime forces and their allies Thursday night and that clashes were ongoing.

ISIS targeted several villages with a majority population from Bashar Assad's Alawite clan, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, said Observatory head Rami Abdel-Rahman.

One of the attacks on al-Masoudiya village, the hometown of Bashar la-Assad’s first advisor, Bouthaina Shaaban, has also left 13 people killed and 15 more wounded, sources said.

The radical group that seizes swaths of territory in eastern Homs, including the historic city f Palmyra and gas-rich fields, has annoyed regime cerebration over Aleppo capture. Pro-regime activists said the risk of new ISIS advances may cause more causalities as ISIS shows stubborn.

The militants were trying to "totally surround" the Tayfur military airport and "cut its supply route," said Abdel-Rahman.

ISIS took advantage of bad weather that halted regime’s air strikes by pressing more gains especially near the strategic military air base.

The opposition-aligned, Britain-based Observatory said the base is located between the cities of Palmyra and Homs in central Syria.

The extremists retook Palmyra in central Syria on Dec. 11, just eight months after the army backed by Russia drove them out.

Since then clashes have rattled the region and Monday attacks by ISIS on the Tayfur base killed at least 20 government force members, according to the Observatory.

Palmyra is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and its recapture by ISIS gave the militants a propaganda boost as they face assaults on two of their key strongholds – Raqqa in Syria and Iraq's second city Mosul. (With AFP)