At least 26 soldiers have been killed in war-torn Syria’s east, a monitor said on Friday, the deadliest in a new wave of attacks blamed on Daesh group jihadists.
Despite losing their last piece of territory in Syria in 2019, Daesh has maintained hideouts in the vast Syrian desert from which it has carried out ambushes and hit-and-run attacks.
Daesh “members targeted a military bus” in Deir Ezzor province on Thursday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The number of dead has risen to 26” soldiers, it said, revising an earlier toll of 23 and calling it the extremists’ deadliest attack on government forces this year.
The jihadists surrounded the bus and opened fire in Deir Ezzor province’s Mayadeen area, in Syria’s vast Badia desert, the Observatory added.
Eleven other soldiers were wounded, with some in critical condition, while troops previously thought to be missing were on other buses that managed to reach safe areas, said the Britain-based group which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
The official Syrian news agency SANA said the “terrorist attack” had caused a number of military casualties, citing an unidentified army source.
Syrian government forces and their allied pro-Iranian armed groups deployed in the area were on high alert on Friday morning, the Observatory reported.
The war monitor’s Rami Abdel Rahman said Daesh “has recently been escalating its deadly military attacks… aiming to cause as many deaths as possible.”—AFP
