ISIL waged parallel machine gun attacks in the regions of Raqqa, Homs, and Deir ez-Zor on Wednesday morning, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, according to Al-Jazeera.
The attacks killed 26 members of the National Defence Forces, a pro-government militant group, along with four soldiers. The observatory said it expected the death toll to rise due to an unspecified number of wounded, some of whom are in critical condition.
The monitor also said Russian warplanes had conducted strikes on ISIL’s positions in the desert, causing casualties among its members.
ISIL, an armed group that once commanded an estimated 50,000 fighters, declared its own “caliphate” across large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014.
The group was ousted from Syria in 2019 but its vestiges continue to hide out in the desert and plot deadly hit-and-run attacks.
In August, 33 Syrian soldiers were killed near Mayadeen in Deir Ez-Zor province, while 10 pro-government militiamen were killed in Raqqa, ISIL’s former stronghold.
MNA