Clashes between the forces of the Syrian regime and the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group left forty people dead in 48 hours in the desert center of the country at war, an NGO reported on Saturday.
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Some 17 jihadists were killed this Saturday in the fighting and strikes of the Russian aviation, which intervenes in support of the power of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while six pro-regime fighters perished in the clashes, said the Observatory Syrian Human Rights (OSDH). " The fighting was started on the night of Thursday to Friday with a jihadist assault on regime positions " near the locality of Sukhna, in the central Syrian desert, according to the director of the OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahmane. In total, these clashes killed 18 pro-regime fighters and 26 IS jihadists in 48 hours, according to the OSDH.
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Since its defeat in Syria in March 2019, IS has regularly carried out deadly attacks, especially in the vast desert stretching from the central province of Homs to that of Deir Ezzor (east). In mid-May, the OSDH accused ISIS of having shot 11 people in two days, mostly regime fighters, on a desert road in the east of the country.
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The jihadist attacks in Syria target both the Syrian army and its allies and the Kurdish forces, long supported by Washington in their fight against IS. After having self-proclaimed in 2014 a “caliphate” straddling Syria and Iraq, IS has followed up defeats in the two countries before being routed. The war in Syria, launched in 2011 with the suppression of pro-democracy protests by Damascus, has killed more than 380,000 people. It gradually turned into a complex conflict involving a multitude of belligerents, including jihadist groups and foreign powers.