BEIRUT, December 25 (Sputnik) — The Syrian Army has killed nearly 5,000 Islamic State (IS) fighters in the last three months, a Syrian military source told Sputnik on Thursday.
“Every day we note the approximate number of terrorists killed during fights on the ground. Just from the IS group, 4,800 fighters have been destroyed [since the beginning of September],” the source said.
Islamic State, also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a Sunni jihadist group that has been fighting the Syrian government after 2011 anti-government protests in the country turned into an armed rebellion.
A US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against IS targets in Iraq since August and extended the attacks to include militant positions in Syria in September, without the Syrian government’s approval.
On Tuesday, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that some 1,000 militants from Islamic State and al-Nusra Front had been killed by the coalition's airstrikes.
