“An officer with the rank of colonel in the regime forces was killed in clashes with ISIS cells, during a sweeping campaign in the Homs desert in search of ISIS cells,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor.
Damascus, with Russian air support, has been carrying out an expansive sweeping operation in areas where ISIS remains active, with a recent rise in deadly jihadist attacks killing many Syrian government soldiers, as well as pro-regime National Defense Forces (NDF) fighters.
ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called “caliphate”.
While the group was declared territorially defeated in 2019, it still continues to pose serious security risks through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions, especially across the vast Syrian desert as well as several Iraqi provinces.
On Tuesday, another Syrian officer was killed by ISIS gunmen while regime forces were carrying out a sweeping operation in the country’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province.
Last week, at least 19 Syrian regime soldiers were killed in separate deadly ISIS attacks in the Homs desert.
