Syrian army brings reinforcement to battle zone with IS
Damascus/Xinhua/UNI: The Syrian army on Friday brought in reinforcement to the desert region in eastern Syria as battles with Islamic State (IS) militants continued, a war monitor reported.
The reinforcement arrived in the Sukhneh city in the eastern desert region of Homs province amid Russian airstrikes on the IS positions near the town, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based watchdog group said that the battles, which started on Thursday morning, have claimed the lives of 32 Syrian soldiers and 26 IS militants.
The observatory said on Thursday that the battles started when the IS militants launched a wide-scale offensive near the city of Sukhneh in the desert region.
The attacks are the latest in a string of offensives launched by the IS in the desert region in eastern Syria.
On April 6, the IS militants attacked Syrian forces in the countryside of the eastern province of Deir al-Zour.
In an earlier report, the observatory said that more than 377 government forces had been killed since last month in similar attacks by IS militants in the countryside of Deir al-Zour as well as the countryside region of Homs, Raqqa and Sweida provinces.
Also, over 119 IS militants had been killed within the same period of time, the observatory added.
The IS lost key areas across the country, but sleeper cells and some groups in the desert region often launch attacks on Syrian forces.
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