BEIRUT: Fighters from the Islamic State seized part of the key regime air base at Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria in fierce fighting on Saturday, a monitoring group said.

“IS mounted a dawn attack on Deir Ezzor military airport and entered several areas as fierce clashes unfolded between the militants and regime forces there,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It said 119 fighters on both sides were killed.

The suicide bombing, it said, was followed by IS shelling of regime-held positions inside the airbase.

“The clashes resulted in the death of 7 militants and seizing of 2 tanks, an armored vehicle, an artillery and machine guns,” the Observatory said.

A Syrian security source, when asked about the breach, said: “The terrorists have been unable to control the air base.”

Meanwhile, IS fighters kidnapped and killed 16 members of an Iraqi tribe which has fought the militant group in the western province of Anbar, a tribal leader and a hospital source said on Saturday.

Tribal chief Sheikh Naeem Al-Ga'oud told Reuters Islamic State captured the men from the Albu Nimr tribe three days ago. Responding to a tip, tribal members searched a location about 10 km north of the town of Hit, and found their bodies in a water well.

The bodies were transferred to a hospital in Hit, where a doctor said they had bullet wounds to the head and chest.