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At least 34 troops of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the National Defense Forces (NDF) were killed on November 8 in a large-scale attack by ISIS cells in the central region of Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
The London-based monitoring group said that the terrorists attacked several military positions between the town of al-Sukhnah in the eastern Homs countryside and the town of Resafa in the southern countryside of Raqqa in the early morning hours.
Despite inflicting heavy losses on government forces, the terrorists failed to capture any position and withdrew back to the desert.
Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV, which is close to the Syrian government, reported that an operation to hunt down the terrorists was launched by the SAA and the NDF.
Warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out two waves of airstrikes against ISIS hideouts between al-Sukhnah and Resafa in response to the attack and to support of the operation. The SOHR reported that at least seven terrorists were killed in the airstrikes.
The al-Sukhnah-Resafa attack was one of the largest and deadliest offensive operations by ISIS cells in central Syria this year.
The attack came amid an unprecedented Israeli attack on the Palestinian Gaza Strip and a regional confrontation between Iranian-backed forces and the United States. This raises some serious questions about the affiliation of ISIS, especially its cells in central Syria. Officials from Syria and Russia warned on several occasions earlier this year and before that the terrorists were being trained and armed by the U.S.
