200 IS fighters killed, wounded near Tabqa airport: NGO

Reporting by Abdullah Al Ghadawi

(Zaman Alwasl)- At least 14 members of the Islamic State (IS) have been killed and 150 more wounded in the ongoing clashes with the Syrian regime army on Saturday near al-Tabqa military airport in Raqqa province east Syria, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 200 fighters of IS that has seized swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq were killed and wounded during the fierce fighting with Bashar al-Assad’s troops.

The observatory also reported casualties among Syrian army ranks as a suicide bomber struck the airport entrance on Saturday dawn.

 Filed activists told Zaman Alwasl that the strikes of regime warplanes were highly acute and precise, some say it might has been hit by U.S. air strikes.

The IS had announced Thursday its rapid advance in the area after launching an operation to take control of the airport.

Zaman Al Wasl sources say that IS is massing jihadists for the battle of al-Tabqa as the militant group is expecting a long battle may extend to one month or more.

"Now there are 100 suicide bombers are ready to hit the airport gates," source said.

The airbase at Tabqa, some 40 km (25 miles) east of the city of Raqqa in northeast Syria, represents the government's last foothold in an area otherwise controlled by IS.

On Friday, Syrian government forces have sent reinforcements to an air base being attacked by Islamic State militants in northeast Syria where no fewer than 30 of the radical group's fighters were killed on Thursday, Reuters said.

The Observatory said the reinforcements had been flown in overnight into Friday.

The city of Raqqa on the Euphrates River represents the Islamic State's stronghold in Syria. Boosted by weaponry seized in Iraq, the group has taken three Syrian military bases in the area in recent weeks.

The human rights office of the UN reported Friday that at least 191,369 people have been killed in the Syrian armed conflict between March 2011 and April this year.