DAMASCUS, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army and allied Iranian-backed fighters foiled on Thursday an attack by the Islamic State (IS) group on military positions near the Syrian-Iraqi border, a military source told Xinhua.
The IS has failed in the offensive they waged on a base of the Syrian army and the Iranian-backed Fatemiyoun forces near the Iraqi border, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The IS launched their attack with a large number of fighters and military gears on a military base near the Sad al-Waer area in the Syrian desert close to the Syrian-Iraqi border.
The attack, however, was responded to with big firepower, which forced the attackers to quickly retreat after suffering huge losses, the source added.
The attack comes against the backdrop of the big progress the army and allied Shiite fighters have achieved in the Syrian desert in the remote eastern countryside of Homs province in central Syria.
The terror-designated group also launched an attack in the eastern countryside of Salamiyeh city in the northeastern countryside of Hama province over the past 24 hours in central Syria.
The IS managed to take some positions from the army before the later unleashed a counter offensive and recaptured all the points that had fallen to the IS, namely the areas on the Athriah-Khanaser highway, al-Othaib and Sheikh Hilal in Hama.
It's worth noting that the army has already laid two sieges on the IS, the first in the eastern countryside of Hama and the Syrian desert in the eastern countryside of Homs.
The presence of IS is highly threatened in these areas, which pushes the group to carry out suicide offensives in the hope of surviving in that area.
