AKIPRESS.COM - At least 215 people have died in a series of apparently co-ordinated attacks in south-western Syria, local officials and a monitoring group say, BBC reports.

Several suicide bombings struck in and around the government-held city of Suweida - the main city in the province - on Wednesday.

The Islamic State group (IS) said it carried out the attacks.

Pro-government forces were later reported to be engaged in gun battles with IS militants east of the city.

The Syrian government, backed by Russia, recently launched a campaign to retake the remaining rebel-held areas across the south of the country.

Wednesday's wave of attacks was the deadliest on government-held territory in months, correspondents say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reported a string of suicide blasts in Suweida, south of the capital Damascus, and in villages to the north and east. It said militants also stormed homes in the villages and killed the occupants.

It said at least 221 people had been killed, 127 of them civilians.

"It's the bloodiest death toll in Suweida province since the start of the war [in 2011]," observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency.

The Suweida health authority told pro-government radio station Sham FM that 215 people had been killed and 180 injured.