(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 60 regime troops killed and missed in clashes with the Islamic State east of Homs city as fierce clashes still underway at the enclave of Syrian desert, local reporter said Saturday.
13 Shiite fighters from al-Ridha Brigade were also killed in the clashes in Mukharram al-Fouqani area near al-Shumariya mountains in the past 48 hours.
The army and its allies had taken a number of villages northeastern Homs province, encircling the Islamic State fighters to their west in an area of land around 8,000 km square.
About 200 regime soldiers have been killed since August by ISIS In the Syrian desert, also known as Badia.
In retaliation, Syrian regime warplanes conducted about 3000 raids on the rebel-held areas in Homs and Hama provinces.
The Russian warplanes have also carried out at least 1155 on Homs and 950 raids on Hama in August.
The regime forces have made rapid gains on Saturday near the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, taking the Teym oilfield in desert south of Deir al-Zor from Islamic State.
The regime forces also seized part of a main highway running from Deir al-Zor down to the city of al-Mayadeen, to which many ISIS militants have retreated, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
The Syrian army this week broke through Islamic State lines to reach a government-held enclave of Deir al-Zor besieged for years by the jihadists, and is fighting to reach a nearby air base which IS still surrounds.
The advances put yet more pressure on Islamic State’s shrinking caliphate, which once stretched across northern and eastern Syria, and northwestern Iraq.
Zaman A Wasl
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