The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) repelled an attack by ISIS on one of its checkpoints in the country’s Al-Badia desert region in central Syria’s Homs governorate.
“The army repelled an attempt by ISIS to attack one of its checkpoints in the Badia of Al-Sukhnah, starting from the Al-Tanf area known as the 55-kilometer area,” a Syrian military source told Al Mayadeen.
The ISIS militants were “riding two pickup trucks and three motorcycles … their movement from the Al-Tanf area was monitored before they were confronted,” the source added. It also said Syrian–Russian airstrikes targeted ISIS positions in Al-Sukhna, in the Palmyra desert, and other areas in the Syrian desert.
The 55-kilometer area, from which the source said the attack originated, refers to the geographical surroundings of the US Al-Tanf military base in eastern Syria.
According to numerous reports in the last couple of years, as well Syrian and Russian officials, ISIS and other extremist groups receive training inside the Al-Tanf base, and are given logistical support to carry out hit-and-run attacks against Syrian military forces in the country’s desert region.