IS claims attack which killed two Syrian soldiers near regime airbase

The Islamic State group (IS) claimed an attack on Wednesday night that left a number of Syrian regime soldiers dead and wounded in the country’s north.

The militants announced via Telegram that they had killed two soldiers and wounded five others in an attack near the Tabqa airbase in the Raqqa governorate.

Elsewhere in Raqqa, a member of a Russian-backed militia was killed after a landmine left by IS exploded on a desert road.

According to statistics published in its weekly Al-Nabaa newspaper, IS claims to have carried out four operations in the past week which it said killed seven members of the Syrian regime forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Analysis: Eight years since its rise to power, IS is a shadow of its former self.

But ongoing conflict and instability in its former heartland are threatening to create conditions for the extremist group to make a resurgence

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On Wednesday, a suspected IS cell withdrew from its stronghold in southern Syria after an assault by Russia-linked former rebel fighters.

Although it lost the large swathes of territory it once controlled in Syria, IS continues to wage a low-level insurgency targeting soldiers, civilians, and rival groups.

Syria's 11-year conflict has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions, and has left much of the country in ruins, mostly as a result of indiscriminate regime bombing of civilian areas.