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Islamic State (IS) group militants killed three Syrian regime soldiers in an attack Tuesday on an army position in the Badia desert, a war monitor said.

The militants "attacked a site where... regime forces were stationed," the Syrian Observatory for Human Right said, adding that a lieutenant colonel and two soldiers died.

The Syrian army had sent forces to the area, where IS attacks are common, ahead of an expected wider sweep, said the Britain-based Observatory which has a network of sources inside the country.

In an attack on May 3, IS fighters killed at least 15 Syrian pro-regime fighters when they targeted three military positions in the desert, the Observatory had reported.

IS overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a so-called caliphate and launching a reign of terror.

It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019, but its remnants still carry out deadly attacks, particularly against pro-regime forces and Kurdish-led fighters in the Badia desert.

Syria's war has claimed more than half a million lives and displaced millions more since it erupted in March 2011 with the regime's brutal repression of anti-government protests.