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On May 1, ISIS terrorists ambushed a unit of Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, a Iranian-backed Iraqi group, near the village of Arak in central Syria, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Arak is located near a highway linking the ancient city of Palmyra with the town of al-Sukhnah in the eastern countryside of Homs. A large gas field is located near the village. ISIS cells are known to be present and active in this area.
The SOHR said that four Iraqi fighters of Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada were killed and at least six others were wounded in the ambush. These claims are yet to be verified.
Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada is one of several Iranian-backed Iraqi groups which have been supporting Syrian government forces against ISIS cells in the central region for a few years now.
If confirmed, this would be ISIS’s third attack in central Syria in less than a week. The terrorist group carried out attacks in the eastern Homs countryside as well as along the administrative border between Raqqa and Deir Ezzor on April 27 and 28. The Russian Aerospace Forces responded to both attacks.
According to a recent report by the SOHR, more than 550 Russian airstrikes hit ISIS’s area of influence in central Syria during April. The airstrikes killed 26 terrorists of ISIS and wounded at least 21 others.
ISIS’s recent attacks in central Syria were likely a part of the “Battle of Revenge for the Killing of the Two Sheikhs,” a campaign the terrorist group launched in Levant and several other regions across the world in April to avenge its former leader and spokesman who died during a US raid in Syria’s northwestern region early on in the year.
