Beirut | Eleven jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group perished in a series of night strikes carried out by the Russian air force in the east of the province of Homs (center), the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday ( OSDH).
The NGO reported 11 jihadists killed “in the last few hours in airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force against the Islamic State in the Syrian desert”.
The strikes were carried out “in the desert of al-Sakhné and Tadmor (center) and in the desert of Deir Ezzor (east)”.
“The jihadists are hiding in caves” located in this desert region where ISIS cells are still active, said OSDH director Rami Abdel Rahman.
According to the OSDH, around 20 other jihadists were injured, some of them seriously.
This attack is the deadliest of its kind since November when 16 jihadists were killed in Russian raids.
OSDH has documented more than 229 Russian airstrikes against similar targets in Syria since the start of the year.
Since March 2019, more than 1,128 ISIS jihadists have been killed according to the OSDH.
The self-proclaimed caliphate of the EI group was declared definitively defeated in March 2019 at the end of a long offensive supported by the United States.
But cells of the group continue to harass government forces in the vast Syrian desert.
Triggered in March 2011 by the repression of pro-democracy demonstrations, the war in Syria has claimed nearly half a million lives according to OSDH and displaced millions of people.
Russia has been supporting Syrian government forces since 2015, and thanks to this crucial support, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was able to recapture much of the territory he lost at the start of the conflict.