Press TV - Dozens of US-backed militants from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been killed after members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group launched a surprise attack on them in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr near the border with Iraq.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Saturday that Daesh extremists had dispatched a group of bombers as part of a counter-attack against SDF militants, killing at least 60 and wounding more than 100 of them overnight.

Daesh, in a statement published on the Telegram messaging application, said it had attacked the village of al-Sousa late on Friday, and detonated a car bomb near the village of al-Bagouz further south.

On September 15, the SDF said its fighters had stormed Bagouz and were close to the center of the village.

The forces added that they planned to open another front in Sousa area along the Euphrates River to build up pressure on the extremists.

The development came only a day after at least 20 SDF militants were killed in a Daesh ambush around the town of Hajin in Dayr al-Zawr province.

“The fighters were advancing during a sandstorm, they were surrounded, Daesh members used explosives and opened fire,” the SOHR said.

SDF militants, mainly active in the eastern part of the Euphrates River, are purportedly fighting against the remnants of Daesh, which has already been driven out of all its urban bastions both in Iraq and Syria.

However, the Damascus government regards the SDF as unwelcome armed forces occupying parts of Syrian territory without the consent of the central government.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.