Agence France Presse

BEIRUT: A commando operation backed by Russian warplanes and helicopters has killed 25 members of Daesh (ISIS) in central Syria, a monitor said Sunday.

Supported by regime ally Russia, Syria's army has waged a months-long offensive to recapture the vast desert region that stretches from the country's centre to the Iraqi and Jordanian borders.

On Saturday, "25 [Daesh] members were killed and others wounded in a commando operation by Syrian regime forces with air support from Russian warplanes and helicopters" in the northeast of Homs province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Six members of the regime forces were also killed, it said.

A military source said the operation occurred "20 kilometres inside Daesh terrorist lines."

The raid allowed regime forces to seize control of three villages in the area, official news agency SANA reported the source as saying.

The army has captured swathes of territory from the militants in the province. According to the Observatory, Daesh now controls just dozens of villages in the east of Homs.

The Syrian "Badiya" is a large stretch of desert that extends over around 90,000 square kilometres of territory.

Since 2015, much of the Badiya has been held by Daesh, but Syria's army has been chipping away at it since May.

Regime forces have ousted Daesh from Al-Sukhna, the last militant-held town in Homs province.

Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad are also fighting the militants in the south of neighbouring Raqa province.

A U.S.-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance meanwhile is battling to retake the provincial capital, Raqa city, from Daesh.

The militants also hold the majority of the vast desert province of Deir Ezzor including most of its provincial capital.

More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests.