11 pro-regime fighters in the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor were killed by three ISIS suicide bombers. (File Photo)
“Eleven soldiers and pro-regime militiamen were killed and 20 others wounded in the industrial neighbourhood in eastern Deir Ezzor city,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
They were killed in “three explosions of bomb-laden cars driven by ISIS suicide bombers”.
ISIS controls most of oil-rich Deir Ezzor province and about half of the city, which lies about 450 kilometres (280 miles) northeast of Damascus, near the Iraqi border.
According to the Observatory, ISIS’s violent attack allowed it to advance slightly in the city, but Syrian and Russian warplanes were fiercely striking their positions.
Russia has been conducting an air war in Syria since September.
Syria’s official news agency SANA also confirmed the car bombings, but said government forces had been able to push ISIS back.
Elsewhere in Syria, the toll from deadly strikes likely conducted by Russian warplanes in Idlib province on Sunday rose to 58 people, mostly fighters.
The toll did include six Islamic court judges from the Ahrar al-Sham hardline group, which is allied with Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch.
Since it erupted in March 2011, Syria’s conflict has left more than 250,000 people dead.
