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On December 15, five fighters of the pro-government National Defense Forces (NDF) were killed when their vehicle was ambushed by ISIS cells in Syria’s central region, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The London-based monitoring group said that the NDF vehicle was moving near the town of Ithriyah in the eastern Hama countryside, on a key road leading to Raqqa when it was targeted with an explosive device. Three NDF fighters were killed by the explosion, while two others were allegedly killed in clashes with ISIS terrorists who opened fire at the vehicle.
ISIS cells in central Syria stepped up their attacks on government forces this month, taking advantage of poor weather conditions in the region.
The terrorists attacked several positions of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies between the town of al-Sukhnah and the T3 Pumping Station in the eastern Homs countryside on December 8. At least eleven were killed during the clashes, including a Syrian soldier, eight Iranian-backed fighters and two terrorists of ISIS.
In mid-October, ISIS cells in Syria received a major blow when their leader Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi was killed in a joint operation by the SAA and former rebels in the southern governorate of Daraa. Since then, the terrorists in the central region and other parts of the country have pledged allegiance to the new “caliph” Abu al-Hussein al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.
The SAA, the NDF and other pro-government forces have already deployed reinforcements and intensified their operations in the central region in order to restrict the movements of ISIS cells during the winter. Still, more needs to be done to contain the terrorist group’s insurgency in the region.
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