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DAMASCUS, June 29 (Xinhua) -- At least 40 fighters of the U.S-backed New Syrian Army (NSyA) were killed on Wednesday, by the Islamic State (IS) terror group, IS-related media outlets reported.
IS official news agency Amaq said it had killed 40 of the NSyA fighters and captured 15 others after trying to storm IS areas in the countryside of the Bukamal city in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour.
Earlier in the day, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV and activist groups said U.S coalition's aircraft parachuted fighters of the NSyA on IS-held territory near Bukamal.
It was the first airdrop of U.S-backed Syrian rebels near Bukamal.
The NSyA posted photos online, purporting to show its fighters in control of a desert area in the countryside of Bukamal.
The IS Amaq news agency said the IS fighters battled the NSyA in the Hamdan airbase west of Bukamal, adding that huge losses were inflicted upon the U.S-backed rebels, who, the IS said, came from "U.S. training camps in Jordan under the air cover of the U.S-led coalition."
he IS said it had further captured weaponry and armored vehicles from the NSyA.
The New Syrian Army is a group of Syrian army defectors founded in November 2015.
The Western-backed rebel group says it seeks to expel IS from eastern Syria, mainly in Deir al-Zour, an oil-rich province close to the Iraqi borders.
It claims that it had received training and advanced weaponry from the CIA.
