At least 15 Syrian army soldiers were killed during raging battles with the Islamic State (IS) group at a besieged northern airbase, a monitor group reported Monday.

Intense battles have recently been raging in the vicinity of the Koerse airbase, which has for long been besieged by the IS militants in the eastern countryside of the northern Aleppo province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based watchdog group said 12 military officers were among the 15 slain army men, adding that the raging battles also killed 26 IS militants, who staged three suicide car bombings near the airbase.

Koerse, which has been besieged by the rebels since two years ago, is biggest airbase in Syria, stretching on a 5 square kilometers of land and includes the Aviation Faculty, one of the biggest in the Middle East.

The airbase, which is run by around 2,000 army men, is deemed as the regime bastion in Aleppo. Several rebel and jihadi groups staged several attempts to storm the sprawling faculty, but couldn't succeed due to its heavy fortification.

The base is used by the Syrian warplane to strike the rebel-held areas and the positions of the IS in Aleppo, which made it a target to the rebels to eliminate.

The Syrian military has lost several key airbases to the rebels in the recent years of the crisis, and losing Koerse would be a severe blow to the Syrian army. Endit

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