Early on June 18, ISIS terrorists launched an attack on positions of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the eastern Hama countryside.
The attack targeted checkpoints of the army near the town of Ithriyah, which is located on a key trade road linking the northern city of Aleppo with Hama.
Click to see full-size map. Source: (@Suriyakmaps) on Twitter, Via Google Maps – TerraMetrics
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), six Syrian service members were killed and nine others were injured in the attack. Pro-government sources said that at least five terrorists were killed.
“This attack is the fifth of its kind in less than ten days, meaning that the Islamic State is stepping up its attacks within a new area, which is the Aleppo-Hama-Raqqa triangle,” the monitoring group said in a report.
Following the attack, the SAA deployed fresh reinforcements near Ithriyah. Several sources also reported that Russian warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes on ISIS’ hideouts in eastern Hama.
The SAA and its allies recently conducted a series of successful security operation in eastern Homs, southern Raqqa and western Deir Ezzor. Apparently these efforts forced the remaining ISIS terrorists to flee to southeastern and eastern Hama.
