Daesh group kills 73 Syrian govt fighters, says monitor

beirut — Daesh group killed at least 73 Syrian government troops and militia as the militants put up fierce resistance to a Russian-backed offensive against some of its last bastions, a monitor said on Friday.

Most of Thursday’s dead came south of the desert town of Sukna, east of the ancient city of Palmyra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Daesh put out a statement claiming to have killed scores of regime fighters in the area.

Syrian troops pushed through the vast desert that separates the main cities of the west from the Euphrates Valley this summer and broke a three-year Daesh siege of government enclaves in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor earlier this month.

Thursday’s attacks targeted forces around Deir Ezzor and on their supply lines through the Sukna area from the west, the Observatory said. —