Beirut
Unknown gunmen abducted and killed nine policemen Monday in southern Syria in a rare such attack on a government building in the defeated cradle of the nine-year uprising, a monitor said.
The killings, for which there were no immediate claim of responsibility, occurred in a town called Muzayrib in Daraa province, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“Unknown assailants attacked the municipality building… abducting nine members of the security forces before shooting them dead and abandoning their bodies in a square,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. Attacks are common in the province, which was retaken by regime forces from rebels in 2018, usually targeting loyalists and civilians working for the state, according to the Observatory. But the nature of Monday’s incident and high toll are unusual. “Usually attacks against regime forces target checkpoints or patrols, not government buildings,” Abdel Rahman said.—APP
