Daesh militants kill at least 37 Syrian soldiers in bus ambush
- 31 Dec 2020
Gulf Today Report
A UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said that Daesh militants in eastern Syria have attacked a bus, killing at least 37 Syrian soldiers, in one of the deadliest attacks since the fall of their "caliphate" last year.
Local media said the bus was targeted on Wednesday in the restive Deir Al Zour province.
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According to Deir Ezzor residents and intelligence sources quoted by Reuters, there has been a rise in recent months of ambushes and hit-and-run attacks by Daesh militants who hide in caves in the mainly desert region.
They also say that in the last few months, Arab tribes in the area have been angered by executions by Iranian militias operating in the area of dozens of nomads suspected of affiliation with militants.
The bus was targeted on Wednesday in the restive Deir Al Zour province. SANA/AFP
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor targeted the regime soldiers as they travelled home for the holidays.
The official news agency SANA reported that a "terrorist attack" on a bus killed "25 citizens" and wounded 13.
Daesh overran large parts of Syria and Iraq and proclaimed a cross-border "caliphate" in 2014, before multiple offensives in the two countries led to its territorial defeat.
The group was overcome in Syria in March last year, but sleeper cells continue to launch attacks namely in the vast desert that stretches from the central province of Homs to Deir Ezzor and the border with Iraq.