ISIS attacks Syrian Army near capital

ISIS fighters launched attacks on government-held areas near Damascus overnight in what a Syrian source said appeared to be a response to the group’s loss of ground elsewhere.

The group said in a statement that it had attacked the Tishrin power station, 50 km northeast of the capital. The Syrian military source acknowledged the group had staged assaults, but said all those who took part had been killed.

Syrian and allied forces backed by Russian airstrikes have forced ISIS militants out of the town of al-Qaryatain, which lies between Damascus and the ancient city of Palmyra, itself recaptured by the government last week.

ISIS has also been losing ground to US-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria, and in recent days to Turkish-backed rebel groups fighting a separate battle against the group north of Aleppo.

The Syrian source said Tuesday night’s attacks outside Damascus appeared to be the jihadist group’s response to its reverses around Palmyra.

ISIS attackers, using five bomb-laden cars, also struck military positions near the Dumeir military airport, 40 km northeast of Damascus, killing 12 soldiers, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based organisation that tracks the war, said.

ISIS claimed the bombings in an online statement, saying it carried out a suicide attack on government forces which were moving north from the military airport.

The Syrian Army and its allies launched a big attack overnight on insurgents south of Aleppo, described as the fiercest government assault in the area since a cessation of hostilities agreement came into effect in February.

The Observatory said airstrikes, artillery and rockets were being used in an attack aimed at recovering the town of Telat al-Eis, captured by rebels in recent days. The Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front shot down a Syrian warplane in the area on Tuesday, capturing its pilot.

A statement from the Syrian Army and its allies said they had started to target the positions of armed groups in areas south of Aleppo, supported by “heavy and concentrated airstrikes”, the website of the Hezbollah-controlled al-Manar reported.