Alalam - Syria
According to Soumeriya news, more than 500 ISIS members, including field commanders, arrived from Iraq in Raqqa, the ISIL's main stronghold in Syria, in the past four days.
According to reports, the fighters are Syrians, Iraqis, Arabs and foreigners, and about 200 of them have been sent to the fronts in al-Bab city in Northeastern Aleppo province.
Also more than 300 fighters were sent to the fronts of Palmyra and the Eastern parts of Homs.
Also sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the fighters were sent after a meeting between the commander of Jeish al-Sham terrorist group and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIS leader, and the ISIL's minister of war.
During the meeting, they promised to the commander of Jeish al-Sham that the reinforcements would continue.
Meantime, earlier reports today said that the Syrian army has sent hundreds of fresh forces to the ancient city of Palmyra (Tadmur) to repel ISIL's large-scale attacks and take back the lands lost in recent days.
Hundreds of forces arrived in the Eastern territories of Homs city to help the army men to fend off ISIL's continued attacks and then take back lost lands near Tadmur.
ISIL terrorists have started large-scale offensives against government positions since two days ago and managed to capture several gas and oil fields and heights near the city.
Meantime, he army soldiers and National Defense forces with the back up of Russian and Syrian fighter jets warded off ISIL's attacks in some of the flanks and killed tens of the terrorists.
The Russian Air Force has also dispatched a number of choppers to T-4 airbase Northeast of Palmyra to back the ground forces to take back the lands lost to the ISIL and repel terrorists' attacks.
A field source said that bad weather did not allow the Russian and Syrian aircraft to provide good support for the army men during the Thursday attacks of the ISIL.
"But Syrian bombers and the Russian choppers targeted heavily the movements and gatherings of ISIL near the energy fields," the source added.
Another source disclosed that Palmyra and its road are under the full control of the army soldiers, adding that ISIL does not have enough fighters to capture Tadmur.
ISIL had gathered a number of forces from other regions for carrying out the attack in Homs, while advances of Ankara-backed militants in Euphrates Shield Operation in al-Bab region in Northern Aleppo and continuation of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces' Euphrates Rage Operation to liberate Raqqa city have forced ISIL to use its forces in those battlefields in Aleppo and Raqqa provinces.
The army soldiers, supported by the Russian helicopters, started special operations to retake control of al-Sukri district Southeast of Tadmur in Central Syria and continued advance to reach Khanifis region on Thursday.
A field source said that the Syrian army seized back control of Sawame al-Haboub region East of Tadmur and Arak gas field and was only a few hundred meters away from Khanifis power plant.
The source added that the Syrian army continued operations towards Toynan company in Eastern Tadmur to establish the biggest security ring around the city.
According to the reports, the Syrian army units' operations near Tadmur started and they would cover two pivots; first from al-Sukri district towards Khanifis; and then towards al-Sukhnah city in the Eastern parts of Homs which hosts one of the most important ISIL training centers in the region.
A military source said that operations towards al-Sukhnah were carried out to cut the important supply routes, adding that by retaking control over al-Sukhnah, the ISIL terrorists' move through the old roads between Raqqa and Jordan and Iraq would be impossible, FNA reports.
He said that liberation of al-Sukhnah would pave the ground for the army and its allies' advance towards Deir Ezzur city from the Western side and meantime, the Syrian forces could reach al-Tabaqa region in Southern Raqqa through al-Sukhnah road.
SA