18 regime forces killed in Syria

BEIRUT: Islamic State group Jihadists on Thursday killed at least 18 regime fighters in an attack in central Syria, a war monitor said.

Pro-government fighters backed by Russian air strikes were battling off the jihadists on the outskirts of the desert town of Al-Sukhna in Homs province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The air raids and clashes killed 11 IS fighters, the Britain-based monitor said.

"The Russian aviation intervened to stop the jihadists from advancing and retaking the town," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. Syrian regime forces recaptured Al-Sukhna from IS in 2017.

Thursday’s attack was the deadliest in the area since December, when IS fighters attacked an army garrison in a gas facility east of Homs city, killing four civilians and 13 troops or militiamen, Abdel Rahman said. IS proclaimed a "caliphate" in parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014.