(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 92 regime army troops and allied militants have been killed in clashes with the Islamic State in Deir Ezzor, Homs and Hama province in the last 48 hours, activists and the group's Amaq news agency said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an Islamic State attack on Thursday cut off the main road between Deir Ezzor city and Palmyra, but a regime military source denied this to Reuters.
The Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor, said Islamic State seized the town of al-Shoula on the road, as Syrian troops and their allies battled around it with heavy air cover.
Amaq news agency said 15 troops killed in a suicide bomb attack east of Deir Ezzor while 33 more have been killed near the desert town of al-Shoula.
The regime military source said the army thwarted the attack and denied that Islamic State fighters had taken the town and cut off the route. The militants tried to mount an attack from territory they control southeast of Deir Ezzor city, near the border with Iraq, the source added.
In Hama and Homs provinces, 44 fighters from the regime army and allied militias were killed as Assad forces seek to uproot ISIS from Uqairbat village, last ISIS pocket in eastern Hama countryside. Yet, dozens of regime troops killed near the besieged pocket since May.
Clashes also took place in the eastern countryside of Homs,11 militant from the pro-regime National Defense Forces were reportedly killed near Om al-Rish village.
Also in Homs desert, 6 regime army soldiers were wounded last week in Tayfour military airbase when a huge explosion struck weapons depots.
In Hama, regime mourned Major Kheder Marouf, said he was the pilot of a helicopter shot down with a TOW missile late on Tuesday.
Rebel group Jaish al-Azza, part of the Free Syrian Army alliance, said in a statement it had “destroyed a Russian helicopter” near the village of Allatamneh in the northern countryside of Hama city.
Last week, Hayat Tahir al-Sham, former al-Qaeda group, backed by 5 rebel factions launched major attack on regime bastions in Hama and southern Idlib. The attack was the biggest in the area since March.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that rebels had launched Idlib offensive to hinder the regime's advances in Deir Ezzor province.
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