The Islamic State jihadist group has carried out a new attack against the Syrian army, the third since the beginning of August, in a desert area in eastern Syria. The attack killed at least 23 people, an NGO said on Friday August 11.
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IS lost the territories it had taken control of in eastern Syria in 2019, and four of its successive leaders have since been killed, but the group continues to carry out attacks from the desert areas where its fighters are. withdrawn, targeting the army in particular.
” IS fighters on Thursday evening ambushed a Syrian army bus carrying soldiers in eastern Deir Ezzor province, targeting them with small and medium weapons “Said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
According to this NGO, based in the United Kingdom, but which has an extensive network of sources in Syria, ” at least 23 soldiers were killed and ten wounded “, while dozens of other soldiers are missing. Syrian official media did not immediately mention the attack.
The intensification of attacks despite the death of several leaders
On Friday morning, regime forces and pro-Iranian groups allied with it, heavily deployed in the Deir Ezzor region, were on high alert, according to the OSDH. This is the third major attack by IS against the Syrian army since the beginning of August, and the deadliest, according to the director of the OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahman.h
On Monday, ten soldiers were killed in the province of Raqa, where IS had proclaimed, in terror, a “caliphate” in 2014, before being ousted in 2017. On August 1, seven people, including five soldiers Syrians, had died in an attack against a convoy of tankers carrying fuel in a desert area in central Syria.
” IS has recently stepped up its attacks (…) in a message aimed at ensuring that the group is still present and active despite the death of its leaders “, told AFP Rami Abdel Rahmane.
Since 2019, four IS leaders have been successively killed. On August 3, the extremist formation announced the death of the latest, and the appointment of a successor. According to IS, he had been killed by a jihadist group which is hostile to it and which controls the province of Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in northwestern Syria.
Read alsoSyria: the Islamic State group carried out more than a hundred assaults against the Syrian army in 2023
(With AFP)