Thirty members of Syrian pro-regime forces were killed in a series of simultaneous attacks by the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria’s vast desert areas, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said on Wednesday.
According to the OSDH, which is based in the United Kingdom but has an extensive network of sources in the country at war, “four soldiers and 26 members of the National Defense Forces”, an auxiliary army militia, have been killed in these attacks that targeted were on military personnel. positions and control points.
The attacks took place in Badia, the vast desert that stretches from the central province of Homs to the eastern border with Iraq and runs through Deir Ezzor province.
According to OSDH director Rami Abdel Rahman, the number of casualties is expected to increase as some of the injured are in serious condition.
The terrorist group, which controls regions in Iraq and Syria and bases its ideology on radical interpretations of Islam, has recently intensified its attacks in Syria, especially from the desert areas, where its fighters withdrew after losing in 2019. controlled in this country .
After a meteoric rise to power in Syria and Iraq in 2014, the ‘jihadist’ group saw its self-proclaimed ‘caliphate’ falter under the influence of successive offensives launched in these two countries with the support of an international anti-‘jihadist’ coalition. .
The defeat of IS in Syria was declared in 2019 (and in Iraq in 2017), but the coalition remained in the country to fight the ‘jihadist’ cells that continue to operate in the country.
The conflict in Syria has killed more than half a million people since 2011, destroyed infrastructure and left around seven million refugees and six million internally displaced.
Source: DN
