DAESH ATTACK NEAR PALMYRA LEAVES 15 REGIME SOLDIERS DEAD, 18 WOUNDED

Sun 06 March 2022:

A war monitor said 15 troops were killed in an Islamic State group attack on an army bus in the central Syrian desert on Sunday, as state media reported a “terrorist attack.”

Despite the fall of the Islamic State’s “caliphate” in 2019, the group continues to undertake lethal strikes from hideouts in Syria’s desert, which stretches from the suburbs of Damascus to the Iraqi border.

IS cells “attacked a military bus” in the Palmyra desert, “killing 15 soldiers and wounding 18 others”, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

State news agency SANA had reported 13 dead “including officers” and 18 wounded in a “terrorist attack” on a military bus on Sunday afternoon.

The death toll could grow, according to the Observatory, which depends on a network of sources around the country, because the majority of the soldiers were “seriously wounded.”

IS did not claim responsibility for the bombing right away.

The Observatory noted that the fighting on Sunday began after three regime soldiers were killed east of Palmyra on Friday when their vehicle was attacked.

According to the report, IS operations in Syria’s desert have killed 61 pro-regime soldiers and Iran-linked militants so far this year.

Since the Syrian crisis began in 2011, when widespread protests against the government were met with a brutal response, about half a million people have died and millions have been displaced.

It escalated into a devastating war that drew in regional and international powers.

In January IS fighters launched their biggest assault in years, attacking a prison in the Kurdish-controlled northeast Syrian city of Hasakeh, aiming to free fellow jihadists.

Almost a week of intense fighting left more than 370 dead, according to the Observatory.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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