Dozens of Syrian troops fall in two bomb attacks in Hasakah - SOHR

AMMAN, May 30 (KUNA) -- At least 50 Syrian soldiers were killed or injured on Saturday when two car bombs blew up in the northeastern governorate of Al-Hasakah amid clashes with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The two blasts targeted camps of the regular troops, the national defense forces and the Baath militia, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.
The nearly five dozen casualties include two leading members of Al-Baath battalions' militia, while the ISIL suffered 10 fatalities in the ensuing clashes since the early morning.
Fierce fighting is still going on between the regular troops and pro-regime militias, on one hand, and the ISIL militants, on the other, with the latter advancing on the former on the southern and southeastern outskirts of Al-Hasakah city.
The Syrian warplanes pounded the ISIL-held Al-Ahaddadi town in Al-Hasakah governorate and Belion village in the northwestern governorate of Idlib; the number of casualties has yet to be known.
In a related development, ISIL militants said they blew up a prison in "Tadmor' (Palmyra) town on the eastern rural outskirts of the Homs, central Syria, 10 days after they captured the city, according to SOHR.
Meanwhile, other Islamist opposition groups started an offensive against the regular troops in the eastern and northern parts of Latakia governorate, west Syria, after they controlled the nearby Idlib governorate.
The regime's warplanes dropped up to 100 barrel bombs on the southern city of Daraa, which resulted in scores of civilian casualties, SOHR added. (end) tk.gb