BEIRUT – A lightning assault by the Islamic State group that put thejihadists in control of a southern part of the Syrian capital killed 62regime fighters, a monitor said Wednesday in a new toll.

IS launched the surprise attack on Monday night to seize the Qadamneighbourhood of Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor gave an initial toll onTuesday of 36 pro-government fighters dead, but said that loyalists hadretrieved additional bodies since.

“The toll has risen to 62, most of them local pro-regime fighters,” saidthe Observatory, a Britain-based monitor which relies on sources insideSyria for its information.

“Regime reinforcements have gathered on the outskirts of Qadam, but theoperation to recapture it has not yet started,” said monitor chief RamiAbdel Rahman.

IS have maintained a presence in parts of Damascus, including in thePalestinian camp of Yarmuk and the neighbourhoods of Hajar al-Aswad andTadamun.

It launched its Monday night attack from Hajar al-Aswad, taking advantageof a temporary power vacuum in Qadam after Islamist and jihadist fightersevacuated the area under a deal with the regime.

That agreement saw most of them head to the northwestern province of Idlib,which is controlled by a group led by Syria s former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Al-Watan, a Syrian daily close to the government, also reported Wednesdaythat regime forces had sent reinforcements to Qadam, but said IS had onlytaken “a few buildings in the district s east”.

IS swept across swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, but hassince lost most of that territory to different offensives in both countries.

In Syria, the extremists only control less than five percent of thecountry, according to the Observatory, including in pockets in the easterndesert near the Iraqi border.

Fighters who pledged allegiance to IS are also present in the southernprovince of Daraa.

Syria s war has killed more than 350,000 people, starting in 2011 with thebrutal repression of anti-government protests before spiralling into acomplex conflict involving world powers and jihadists.