Islamic State group militants kill three regime fighters in Syrian Desert

Islamic State group militants killed three Syrian regime soldiers and fighters on Tuesday, according to reports.

IS militants used machine guns in the attack in the Syrian Desert region on the border between Deir az-Zour and Raqqa provinces, sources told The New Arab’s Arabic-language service.

Four other fighters were wounded, the sources added.

Those killed and wounded were soldiers from the Syrian regime’s regular army and fighters from the National Defence Forces militia, which receives support from the regime's ally Russia.

IS took advantage of the sandstorms prevailing in the area to carry out the attack.

"The attack targeted a temporary military post which was recently set up in Jabal Al-Bishri desert on the administrative boundary between Raqqa and Deir az-Zour provinces in northeastern Syria," an anonymous source said.

IS previously claimed responsibility for an attack in Raqqa which killed thirteen people on a bus on Monday.

Elsewhere in Syria, a regime convoy was attacked by machine-gun fire on Wednesday near the town of Dumayr, northeast of Damascus.

Russian warplanes have bombed caves and hiding places in the Jabal al-Bishri desert and other areas in Deir az-Zour and Raqqa province where IS militants are holed up.

There has been no information regarding IS casualties.

Last May, regime and Russian forces and pro-Iranian militias performed major combing operations in the area against IS militants.

The militants have carried out attacks in the vast Syrian desert which have killed dozens of regime troops and militia fighters.

Both Russia and Iran have backed the regime militarily since the Syrian conflict broke out in 2011, with the brutal suppression of peaceful protests.

IS entered the Syrian conflict in 2013 and gained control of huge swathes of territory in eastern Syria and western Iraq, setting up a self-styled “caliphate”.

However, it lost control of all the territory it once held in Syria in 2019, although its militants remain active in the Syrian Desert and in Iraq.