Islamic State Militants Stormed a Government Hospital in Syria and Killed the Troops Inside

Islamic State attacked a hospital during a dawn offensive in Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria on Saturday, killing 20 government troops and taking medical staff hostage, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

IS's mouthpiece, the Amaq news agency, said its fighters stormed the Assad hospital and also seized control of a checkpoint, a fire station, and the university accommodation in the besieged city, not far from Syria's eastern border with Iraq.

Deir al-Zor province is strategically important because it links IS' de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa with territory controlled by the militant group in neighboring Iraq. It also encompasses the valuable al-Tayyam oil fields and the important state-held military airbase, which is located on the Deir al-Zor city's southern edge.

SOHR: ISIS snuck into a Syrian regime hospital in Deir Ezzor & killed 20 soldiers. — Thomas Joscelyn (@thomasjoscelyn)May 14, 2016

The Amaq agency said that IS militants had taken territory close to the oil fields, and were encroaching on the airport.

IS controls about 60 percent of Deir al-Zor province, according to al-Jazeera, and has waged a siege on the government-held districts in the region since last March. An estimated 200,000 civilians are believed to remain in those areas, living under siege for two years.

SOHR reported heavy fighting between government forces and IS, after the latter militants had attacked the southwestern edge of the city at dawn. The monitoring group said that at least 20 members of Syrian government forces and at least six IS fighters were killed during Saturday's fighting.

IS said it killed 25 government troops and took three prisoners.

Russia's RIA state news agency on Saturday reported a source within the airbase on the southern edge of the city as saying an Islamic State attack had been repelled.

The Syrian government and its Russian allies make regular aid drops into the encircled city and there are frequent air strikes on IS targets in and around Deir al-Zor.

IS first launched their offensive on Deir al-Zor in April 2014. The city was the site of a massacre earlier this year carried out by IS. At least 130 people were killed.