Syrian governmental troops clashes

Clashes continued between the Syrian governmental troops on one hand and ISIS extremists on the other hand in different areas in the Syrian city of Deir Al Zour, as the attacks coincided with the bombardment of the strongholds of opposition factions with no information about humanitarian losses.
The Syrian regime forces, backed by foreign militias, continued their battles against the Islamic State group on Palmyra-Sokhna strategic road, while approached the last stronghold of the group in Ark area, east of Homs. Qaisoun News reported that fierce battles are taking place between the Islamic State and the Syrian government forces on Palmyra-Sokhna road, amid rockets and artillery shelling.
Meanwhile, Russian warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes on the terrorist group’s headquarters in the vicinity of al-Sokhna City, in the eastern countryside of Homs. It is noteworthy that recently the regime forces brought major military reinforcements in the city of Palmyra, east of Homs, in order to launch an assault on Deir Ezzor, east of Syria.
The U.S.-led offensive against the Islamic State militant group's (ISIS) de facto capital of Raqqa has been frustrated by the jihadists' use of drones on the battlefield. 
The northern Syrian city is one of ISIS's final strongholds in the region, and the group has put up fierce resistance as a Kurd-dominated coalition of Arabs and ethnic minorities, allied with U.S. Special Forces, storm what has been considered the head of the ultraconservative Sunni Muslim organization's self-proclaimed caliphate. In addition to unleashing a wave of suicide bombings, hidden explosives and sniper attacks, ISIS has reportedly stepped up its use of unmanned aerial vehicles to attack oncoming U.S. troops and their Syrian allies.
The drones are rudimentary compared to the high-tech, weaponized devices used by modern military powers. While the group is believed to have a varied arsenal of unmanned aircraft capable of both launching attacks and carrying out reconnaissance missions, according to Defense One, many of the more sophisticated devices have been encountered in the group's embattled Iraqi stronghold of Mosul. The jihadists' Syrian wing appear to be using more basic models, such as those that managed to drop artillery shells on fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militant group affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Islamic State militants in Raqqa are passing themselves off as civilians to try to avoid intensifying air strikes and shooting anyone caught trying to escape their Syrian bastion as U.S.-backed coalition forces close in, witnesses said.
At a camp for the displaced in the village of Ain Issa north of the city, people who arrived on Wednesday also said the air strikes supporting an assault by U.S.-backed forces had inflicted widespread destruction as the battle intensified.
United Nations war crimes investigators said the air campaign had killed at least 300 civilians in the city, captured by Islamic State in 2014 in the chaos of Syria’s civil war. The escapees said the air strikes had flattened rows of apartment blocks along a main road but many of them had already been abandoned by residents fleeing Islamic State’s reign of terror and the assault on the town, which began last week.
“The coalition strikes destroyed a four-story apartment building. I saw 10 people trapped underneath,” said Abu Hamoud. “They used phosphorus.” Human Rights Watch expressed concern on Wednesday about the use of incendiary white phosphorous weapons by the U.S.-led coalition, saying it endangers civilians when used in populated areas.
The coalition is backing the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias who spent months moving to surround Raqqa in northern Syria in preparation for the assault to recapture the city.
On the humanitarian side, Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday accused a U.S.-led coalition tasked with fighting the Daesh terrorist group with using white phosphorus in populated areas of Syria and Iraq.
“The use of artillery-delivered white phosphorus by the U.S.-led coalition… in Syria and Iraq raises serious questions about the protection of civilians,” the U.S.- based rights watchdog said in a Wednesday report.
“This multipurpose munition should never be used as an incendiary weapon to attack personnel or materiel in populated areas, even when delivered from the ground,” the report reads. It goes on to assert that U.S. forces “are using white phosphorus in both Mosul in Iraq and in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria”.
“No matter how white phosphorus is used, it poses a high risk of horrific and long-lasting harm in crowded cities like Raqqa and Mosul and any other areas with concentrations of civilians,” the report quotes Stephen Goose, director of HRW’s Arms Division, as saying. Earlier this month, Iraqi security forces admitted to using white phosphorus to create a “smokescreen” to allow civilians to flee conflict zones.