More than 150 dead in IS clashes with Syrian regime

Fierce clashes between the Islamic State group and pro-regime forces in central Syria have left over 150 fighters dead in 24 hours, mostly militants, a monitor said yesterday.The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 120 IS fighters “were killed in clashes in and around the town of Uqayribat in the eastern Hama countryside...along with at least 35 regime troops and loyalist militiamen.”The town is the militant group’s last bastion in the central province apart from a handful of small villages.Pro-government forces seized Uqayribat on Friday night, but IS responded with a counter-offensive on Saturday that left it in control of most of the town, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.An intense barrage of artillery fire and Syrian and Russian air strikes on militant positions allowed pro-regime forces yesterady morning to push the militants back out of the town and advance on villages to the west that remain under IS control.IS has controlled Uqayribat since 2014, using it to launch attacks on regime-held areas and a strategically vital road Abdel Rahman described as “the only lifeline for the regime between Aleppo and central and southern Syria”.Regime forces, backed by heavy Russian air strikes, launched a major assault on IS-held parts of Hama in June.“By consolidating their control of (Uqayribat) and ousting IS from the surrounding villages, regime forces could oust the organisation from the whole of Hama province,” Abdel Rahman said.Other rebel groups still control parts of the province’s rural north.Hama, which borders on six other Syrian provinces, is strategically vital to the Assad regime, separating opposition forces in Idlib from Damascus to the south and the regime’s coastal heartlands to the west.IS has suffered multiple defeats across Syria and neighbouring Iraq in recent months, notably in its main Syrian base of Raqqa.On Friday a US-backed Kurdish-Arab coalition seized Raqqa’s Old City and was advancing on the militants in the heavily defended city centre.The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) began their offensive in May, capturing the city of Tabqa and a key dam nearby before entering Raqqa city in early June.Meanwhile, pro-regime forces have advanced against IS in the eastern part of Homs province and western Deir Ezzor, where they have come to within 19 kilometres of the provincial capital. Syria’s conflict has killed more than 320,000 people and displaced millions since it started with anti-government demonstrations in 2011.Meanwhile, An Islamic State evacuation convoy trying to reach IS territory in east Syria has split in two, with some buses remaining in the open desert after others turned back into government-held areas, a US-led coalition fighting the group said. The Syrian government and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group offered the convoy of about 300 lightly armed fighters and about 300 family members safe passage a week ago in return for Islamic State surrendering an enclave on the Syria-Lebanon border.However, the coalition has blocked the convoy from entering Islamic State territory in east Syria, near the border with Iraq, by cratering roads and destroying bridges, saying it opposes the evacuation deal as being “not a lasting solution”.“One group remains in the open desert to the north west of Al-Bukamal and the other group has headed west towards Palmyra,” the coalition said in an e-mailed statement.On Saturday Hezbollah said all but six of the buses had safely crossed out of Syrian government territory and were no longer the responsibility of it or the Syrian government.It warned the United States that the buses in the desert included elderly people, pregnant women and casualties, and accused it of stopping humanitarian aid reaching the convoy.The coalition said it had contacted Russia to deliver a message to the Syrian government that it would still not let the convoy pass, and that it had offered suggestions on how to save the civilians in it from suffering.“Food and water have been provided to the convoy,” it said, without giving further details.The coalition has said it will not target the convoy directly while it contains civilians, but said in its statement it had struck about 85 IS fighters near the convoy.It had also struck about 40 IS vehicles near the convoy including a tank, an artillery system, armed vehicles and transport vehicles seeking to help move the fighters in the convoy into its territory, it said.