Syrian regime-ISIS clashes kill scores in one week: monitor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — More than 40 Syrian regime troops and nearly 50 Islamic State (ISIS) militants have died in a week of clashes in northern Syria, a UK-based war monitor reported on Wednesday.

The most intense clashes have been taking place in the Aleppo-Hama-al-Raqqa triangle of the country, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

“Fierce battles are underway between ISIS members on one hand, and regime forces and loyalists with Russian air support, on the other,” SOHR said.

“Syrian Observatory activists have documented large number of fatalities in the clashes and Russian airstrikes since early October, as 41 regime soldiers and loyalists were killed, while ISIS lost 49 members in the same period,” the monitor said.

The death toll is expected to rise, SOHR said, due to a large number of unconfirmed casualties.

The monitor reported lesser clashes taking place in the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor, an area under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The area is a hotspot of ISIS activity that borders regime-held territory.

According to the latest quarterly report from the Pentagon, ISIS have shown the ability “to operate in parts of Syria under regime control” where the US-led Coalition and its allies “have limited territorial reach”, noting an ISIS offensive in April that saw militants occupy Syrian regime positions in Homs province in April.

SOHR said that it has documented the killing of at least 822 regime soldiers and loyalists of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities since late March. Deaths include at least two Russians, and 140 Iranian-backed militiamen of non-Syrian nationalities who were killed in “attacks, bombings and ambushes” ISIS elements in the deserts of Deir ez-Zor, Homs, and al-Suwaidaa.

During the same time period, 439 ISIS members were also killed in attacks and bombardments, the monitor said.