Islamic State attacks Syrian army, allies in Central Syria

Islamic State attacks on the Syrian army and allied militias in central Syria have killed 35 soldiers over two days, a war monitor said early on Saturday.

Although Islamic State lost its last territorial enclave in Syria at Baghouz near the Iraqi border last month to U.S.-backed forces, it still has fighters holding out in the remote central desert.

The most intense attack was in the al-Koum area north of the ancient desert city of Palmyra, the Observatory said, where Islamic State militants killed 15 Syrian army and allied soldiers.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead included four senior Syrian army officer.

The Amaq propaganda arm of IS, which lost the last vestige of its "caliphate" to Kurdish-led forces in eastern Syria, last month but retains desert and mountain hideouts in both Syria and Iraq, said its fighters carried out the operation.