A monitor claimed on Friday that at least 23 troops were killed in war-torn Syria’s east, the deadliest in a new series of strikes attributed on Islamic State group terrorists.
Despite losing their last piece of Syrian land in 2019, IS has maintained hideouts in the wide Syrian desert from which it has conducted ambushes and hit-and-run operations.
IS “members targeted a military bus” in Deir Ezzor province on Thursday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as remnants of the jihadist group escalate their attacks.
The latest attack killed “23 soldiers and wounded more than 10 others”, some of whom in critical condition, said the Britain-based group which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
The Observatory reported that “dozens of (other) soldiers” were missing following the incident in which jihadists encircled the bus and opened fire in Syria’s vast Badia desert in Deir Ezzor province’s Mayadeen district.
According to an unnamed army source, the “terrorist attack” resulted in a number of military losses, according to the official Syrian news agency SANA.
The Observatory claimed that Syrian government forces and their affiliated pro-Iranian armed groups were on high alert in Deir Ezzor on Friday morning.
According to Rami Abdel Rahman of the Observatory, IS “has recently escalated its lethal military attacks… aiming to cause as many deaths as possible.”
The jihadists are attempting to send “a message aimed at demonstrating the group is still active and powerful despite the targeting of its leaders,” he told AFP.
IS declared the death of its commander, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, last week, claiming he was killed in combat in northwestern Syria.
In a recorded message on the group’s Telegram channels, a spokesman introduced a new leader, known as Abu Hafs al- Hashimi al-Qurashi.
