Nine regime troops killed and wounded in the ongoing clashes with the Islamic State in the Syrian desert, pro-regime news feeds said Monday.
The casualties included General Brigadier as heavy clashes take place near al-Sukhna town, 220 km (150 miles) east of central Homs city.
The regime army and its Iranian-backed allies have announced in the last few days steady gains in the desert northeast of the ancient city of Palmyra with their capture of the Hail gas field that brought them almost 18 kms south of Sukhna, according to Reuters.
Heavy fighting has however continued in near Hail and the nearby Arak gas field that the regime army took last month, both the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and jihadist websites said.
On Sunday, 11 Shiite militants killed by the ISIS in Syrian desert, also known as Badiya.
The radical group launched counter attack on Iran-backed al-Ridha militia in Palmyra desert, leaving 11 killed and 22 more wounded. The attack began by a suicide car bombing, according to field sources.
Six more militants from al Nour militia and Defense Forces were also killed by ISIS in the eastern countryside of Homs.
The army and allied militias have been engaged in a campaign since May to fill the void left by the retreat of militants in areas they once controlled in the vast eastern Syrian desert that stretches all the way from central Syria to the south eastern border with Iraq and Jordan.
In the southeastern desert, heavy fighting continued between the army and its Iranian backed allies on one side and the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels in the rugged eastern countryside of the city of Sweida in southern Syria.
The army said it had captured most of these areas that are also near the border with Jordan, while the rebels said they had inflicted losses on Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah group and Iraqi Shi'ite militias.
