The Daesh jihadist group launched several deadly attacks against the forces of Bashar al Assad’s regime in the Syrian desert, killing at least 30 pro-regime fighters on Wednesday, November 8. These were the deadliest attacks since August, when 33 soldiers were killed in a Daesh attack on an army bus in the province of Deir Ezzor.
The Daesh group attacks killed at least 30 pro-government forces and soldiers in the Syrian desert, a war monitor said on Wednesday, in one of the deadliest such assaults this year.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there had been “30 dead, four of them soldiers and 26 from the National Defense Forces, in simultaneous attacks carried out by the Daesh on Wednesday morning on checkpoints and military positions” in the Syrian desert.
The attacks took place in locations between Raqa, Homs and Deir Ezzor, added the Observatory, which has a vast network of sources on the ground.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman warned the toll could rise, citing an unspecified number of wounded, some in serious condition.
The war monitor said Russian warplanes launched strikes on Daesh positions in the desert, reporting casualties among the jihadists.
Daesh was blamed for a string of deadly attacks on government loyalists earlier this year.
Syria’s war broke out after President Bashar al-Assad’s government crushed peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011 and then drew in foreign powers and global jihadists.
The conflict has killed more than 500,000 people and driven half of the country’s pre-war population from their homes.
Damascus initially lost control over much of Syria to opposition factions, Kurdish fighters and Daesh jihadists.
However, the army gradually clawed back ground with support from key ally Iran and Hezbollah, while Russian intervention since September 2015 turned the tide in the government’s favor, as Damascus now controls around two-thirds of the country.
Malo Pinatel, with AFP
