Pro-Assad fighters continue their push towards the IS stronghold of Raqqa city, as Russian airstrikes hit nearby Hama province.
Heavy Russian airstrikes also bombarded IS territory east of nearby Hama province, according to the Observatory, a UK-based group that monitors the war.
The group has also claimed that US-backed Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) took control of four villages en route to Manbij, an IS-held city in the of province of Aleppo, and that 10 civilians, including five family members, were killed in US-led coalition airstrikes in Ojana village near Manbij.
Some 20 IS fighters and four from the SDF have been killed in three days of fighting, the Observatory added.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 militants have begun a counter offensive against Syrian army positions southwest of Aleppo, according to the Interfax news agency citing a Russian monitoring centre.
The ongoing fighting comes as the United Nations Security Council announced it will formally ask Syria to allow humanitarian air drops to besieged areas.
UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien warned that access to millions of Syrians in need of help is deteriorating amid the fighting.
Taking Raqqa from IS is a major strategic goal for those seeking to topple the Islamist terror group and reduce its stranglehold on Syria.
The five-year Syrian civil war, in which some 1,000 rebel groups are righting to overthrow leader Bashar al Assad, and fighting each other for territorial control, has killed more than 250,000 Syrians.
Millions more have been forced from their homes and migrated to Jordan, Turkey, Greece and Europe.
A fragile, US-Russian brokered truce was implemented in February but ferocious fighting has continued to rage in many parts of the country, killing hundreds of soldiers and civilians.
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