(Zaman Al Wasl)- ISIS suicide attacks on Monday killed at least 20 regime troops and allied Shiite militants in Deir Ezzor province, local activists told Zaman al-Wasl.
The first car bomb attack took place near Hamdan airbase in Albu Kamal town, killing 17 troops, activists Salama Hussein told Zaman al-Wasl.
More 3 forces were killed when a militant riding motorcycle blew himself up inside Deir Ezzor military airport.
ISIS fighters regained control of Albu Kamal after Iranian-backed militias who claimed to have captured the city a few days earlier were ambushed and forced to retreat, tribal leaders, residents and a war monitor said on Monday.
Fighters from Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah in Syria who joined forces with Iraqi Shiite fighters crossing the border into Syria were taken by surprise by militants hiding inside tunnels in the heart of the city they said they had taken on Wednesday, they said.
The Shiite fighters had launched a ground offensive on the city, in Syria's eastern Deir al-Zor province where the Euphrates River meets, after months of mainly heavy Russian bombardment against the city that killed dozens of civilians and caused widespread destruction.
The Syrian army had on Thursday declared victory over Daesh, claiming it had killed many militants while scores surrendered. It said the capture of Albukamal marked the collapse of the militants' three-year reign in the region.
Albu Kamal, a major supply and communications hub for the ultra-hard-line militants between Syria and Iraq, was a big prize for the Iranian-backed militias.
The militants' control of the city and its sister border town of Al-Qaim on the Iraqi side had disrupted the strategic Baghdad-Damascus highway that had long been a major arms supply conduit by Iran to its Syrian ally. (With Reuters)
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