Militants Said to Kill Scores at a Syrian Base

 
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria killed dozens of Syrian government soldiers in an attack on an army base, a Syrian activist group said on Friday.

The group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict from Britain through a network of contacts in Syria, also reported that several of the soldiers, including a colonel, were beheaded after being captured by militants in the assault that began on Thursday at the Division 17 army base near the northern city of Raqqa.

There were conflicting accounts of the clash at the large base, with the observatory saying that government forces had abandoned it, leaving behind the bodies of scores of soldiers. Other reports said only part of the base was in the hands of ISIS.

The government claimed that its forces were still battling ISIS fighters in and around the base, and that they were redeploying to rout the militants. The army has heavy equipment and a large supply of weapons and ammunition there.

Still, the attack was a blow to the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which seemed to have been gaining the upper hand during its long civil conflict with various opposition forces that had often clashed with each other. There have long been accusations that Mr. Assad’s government — despite its repeated denunciations of its opponents as terrorists — had been secretly collaborating with ISIS and other Islamist organizations to undermine more moderate rebel groups.
A Syrian fighter with ISIS reached in Raqqa on Skype said he had visited the base later on Friday. “I could see only bodies; there were, like, 70 scattered everywhere,” he said. “Now our brothers with their trucks will bury them in a mass grave.”

The fighter, who asked not to be named because he said he was not allowed to speak to the news media, added that about 300 soldiers had fled, “some of them hiding in the forests or villages.”
The fighter said the assault began with two suicide bombers, both Saudis, driving into the base in separate attacks and detonating explosives.

“Our brothers stormed the building where dozens of soldiers were inside. We lost 13 martyrs in these battles,” the fighter said. He added that the ISIS dead included seven Syrians.

The Division 17 complex had been the target of previous attacks, by ISIS and rival insurgent groups. All had been foiled.

According to the observatory, ISIS fighters also carried out an attack on a gas field in Homs Province, killing at least 90 people, including soldiers, security guards and engineers. By The New York Times