Eastern Syria (CNN) Driving along a bumpy road on the eastern fringes of Syria's Hama province, dozens of government army personnel watch from hills overlooking the desert. Finally we reach a fork in the road -- to the left lies Aleppo, to the right Raqqa, the self-declared capital of ISIS. In this barren place, we receive an escort to a large military base, where artillery cannons are firing intermittently. We're taken to see the commanding general. The general did not want to appear on camera and did not allow us to use his name, but he spoke openly about the Syrian army's operations here -- combating ISIS but also al Qaeda's wing in Syria, al Nusra Front.CNN's Frederik Pleitgen has exclusive access inside Syrian regime's fight against ISISGeneral credits Russian airstrikes and aerial intelligenceHe says his forces recently have been gaining ground
But the general rejected those allegations and said his forces have firefights with _ militants every day.