Islamic State fighters on Thursday have renewed the attack on regime forces and allied militias in the northwestern Hama province, killing three and wounding 15 troops, residents told Ammar Johmani .
The attack took place 11 miles (17 km) east of Salamiyya, the strategic town that lies near the Syrian desert where ISIS still control vast swaths.
Last week, Islamic State launched surprise attack on regime forces north of Salamiyya city near a highway links between Aleppo and Hama. Five militants killed and 23 wounded.
ISIS looks to control Athariya road, a strategic adjacent, to cut supply route between the eastern countryside of Hama and Aleppo.
Backed by heavy Russian and regime airstrikes, the regime army seeks to expel rebels from the Hama province and to secure the Alawites- dominated territory in al-Ghab Plain, local activists say.
In eastern Syria, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have seized 350 square km (135 square miles) in the past week, tightening "their noose" on Islamic State in an advance to isolate its base of operations at Raqqa, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said on Wednesday.
Some 3,000 to 4,000 Islamic State fighters are thought to be holed up in Raqqa city where they continue to erect defenses against the anticipated assault, drawing coalition air strikes to stop them, Colonel Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, told Reuters in a phone interview from Baghdad.
More than 465,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests
