Yesterday evening, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) suffered its first killed-in-action (KIA) after beginning the Raqqa offensive last week.

Al-Masdar News has identified the SAA soldier as Nabeel Nizar Eid. He served with the Syrian Marines, one of several SAA branches involved in the government offensive.

Nabeel was killed by an Islamic State mortar shell at Khirbat-Zaydān; the latter village was captured by government troops two days ago.

Despite no further deaths, an ISIS suicide truck did however injure upwards of ten SAA troops in western Raqqa earlier today with several soldiers losing either legs or hands.

The otherwise low government death toll is mostly explained by the terrain itself as hardly any civilians live in the desert between Raqqa and Aleppo, thus rendering any ISIS fighters as sitting ducks for Syrian/Russian bomber jets.

The deployment of various elite SAA branches is also important; 5 years of warfare and the battle of Palmyra have given these military elements invulnerable experience.

Furthermore, the armor of the SAA’s newly delivered Russian manufactured T-90 tanks is immune to most anti-tank weaponry.

In turn, the Islamic State is forced to rely on roadside bombs and sporadic VBIED’s (suicide attacks) to contain the Syrian Armed Forces in western Raqqa.

The SAA has advanced over 45 kilometers since beginning its Raqqa offensive and killed dozens of ISIS fighters. Information regarding the total ISIS death toll has not been obtained by Al-Masdar News yet.

The latest military map of the Raqqa offensive is available here.