Resurgent ISIS kills 11 regime soldiers in Syria

In recent months, “Islamic State” extremists have been demanding tax payments from residents of towns and villages in eastern Syria.

Clashes in the Syrian desert between Russia-backed Syrian government forces and “Islamic State” (ISIS) group extremists killed 11 regime loyalists Wednesday, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based war monitor said.

Mobile ISIS units have remained active in the Badia desert since the Islamic State extremists lost the last shred of their self-proclaimed caliphate in March last year.

A group of ISIS militants on Wednesday ambushed a Syrian regime convoy deployed to the desert to sweep it for Islamic State hideouts, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

According to SOHR, the ambush caused “the death of 11 regime soldiers and regime-backed National Defence Forces” (NDF) members, including a brigadier general, the leader of the “137th Regiment”, while over 17 others sustained various injuries” in the fighting some 70 kilometres southwest of the town of Al-Mayadeen.

Intermittent fighting, mostly in the Badia, has killed more than 980 regime fighters and 140 allied Iran-backed combatants since March 2019, as well as more than 530 IS jihadists, the Observatory said.

Death and taxes

ISIS overran large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, declaring a proto-state there, before military campaigns in both countries led to its territorial defeat.

In recent months, however, ISIS extremists have demanded tax payments from residents of certain towns and villages in eastern Syria, according to the Observatory.

Some of those who have refused to comply have been murdered as a result, the monitor added.

The jihadist group has also upped attacks on regime forces in the Badia desert.

In October, ISIS was locked in fierce clashes with Damascus and its Russian backers.

Earlier in August, the group claimed an attack that killed a Russian general near the city of Deir Ezzor.