DAMASCUS, Syria — While most Syrian areas have been under a cease-fire since Feb. 27, fighting has been raging between the Islamic State (IS) militants and the Syrian regime forces following the IS attack on the villages to the north of Hama’s eastern countryside that same day. The official Syrian news agency, SANA, reported on that day the “death of six people in a car bomb by IS at the entrance of al-Salamiyah.”

In another report, SANA reported, “The Syrian army managed to circumvent IS' attacks on many of the areas under the army’s control.”

IS’ attack on the eastern countryside of Hama comes as a reaction to the Syrian forces’ progress on the Salamiyah-Athriya axis all the way to the administrative border of Hama and Raqqa. The Syrian army launched its operations from the area of al-Salamiyah in the Hama countryside 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Hama on Feb. 10, according to Jamal Hazouri, a war correspondent accompanying the Syrian army forces who talked to Al-Monitor via Skype.

“The Syrian army has managed to secure the desert highway from al-Salamiyah area all the way to the village of Athriya, linking al-Salamiyah-Raqqa road to al-Salamiyah-Khanasir-Aleppo road. It is the only land route under the control of the Syrian army, linking the southern regions under its control to the northern areas,” he said.