Members of a patrol of a Syrian army auxiliary militia were kidnapped on Thursday March 9 by the Islamic State (IS) group in the central Syrian desert. The jihadist organization has multiplied attacks and kidnappings in this vast territory which goes from the city of Homs, in the center, to the border with Iraq, in the east.
With our correspondent in Beirut, Paul Khalifeh
The twelve members of the patrol missing since Thursday come from the powerful Sunni tribe of Bousaraya, established in eastern Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) says they were abducted west of the town of Deir Ezzor.
This unit is part of a military force made up of thousands of men sent earlier this week to the desert regions of central Syria to track down the jihadists. The sweeping in progress is accompanied by air raids carried out by Russian fighter-bombers.
The operation was launched after the increase in the last three months of attacks by the Islamic State group against military positions, roads or civilians.
In February, jihadists killed nearly 110 people, including 80 civilians near the city of Palmyra. During a attack on truffle pickers on February 17, Islamic State fighters killed 70 people. A week earlier, they removed about sixty.
Hundreds of well-armed and trained jihadists engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Syrian army and its allies, before retreating to hard-to-reach desert regions.
Despite several offensives launched since the dismantling of the self-proclaimed caliphate of the Islamic State group in March 2019, the Syrian government forces and the Russian army have not been able to overcome them.
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