Syria | Soldiers of Syrian Army killed in new ambush of jihadists

Defence Redefined

Published on 04/01/2021 at 10:30

At least nine people, including seven men of the Syrian Army were killed on Sunday night in an attack by members of the jihadist Islamic State (ISIS) organization on a bus on the road between Raqqa (north) and the capital Damascus, according to an NGO.

Two civilians were also killed in the ambush, while another 16 people were injured, including four civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The attack, the second of its kind in a week, targeted a bus carrying military “and possibly relatives” returning home, Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the London-based NGO, told AFP.

The Syrian state news agency SANA reported that “nine civilians” were killed and four others were injured in a “terrorist attack” on a bus on a highway in Raqqa. Citing a source in the area, the Al-Watan newspaper, which is considered close to Damascus, reported that fighting broke out between jihadists and government forces. ISIS has not yet claimed responsibility for the action.

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On December 30, 39 soldiers – including eight officers – were killed and about ten others were wounded in an ambush targeting a bus in the province of Deir Ezzor (east). ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack. Despite being devastated in March 2019, when its “caliphate” collapsed, ISIS continues to carry out deadly attacks, particularly in Badiya, the desert stretching from the central province of Homs to Deir Ezzor, near the border with Iraq, where jihadists are also active.

In recent months, Badiya has become a hotbed of frequent fighting between jihadists and regime forces backed by the Russian Air Force, Damascus’ strongest ally. As of March 2019, at least 1,300 Syrian military and paramilitary fighters have been killed in clashes in Iran, as well as 600 IS jihadists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Since 2011, the war in Syria has claimed the lives of more than 387,000 people, including 117,000 civilians, and turned more than half the country’s population into displaced persons and refugees.

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