IS attacks in Syria kill 34 government loyalists

BEIRUT: Islamic State group attacks killed at least 34 pro-government fighters and soldiers in the Syrian desert on Wednesday, a monitor said, in one of the deadliest such assaults this year.

The jihadists launched “simultaneous attacks” at dawn on checkpoints and military positions between Raqa, Homs and Deir Ezzor, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group with a network of sources on the ground.

It said there had been “34 dead, at least eight of them soldiers” and most of the others from the National Defence Forces, a pro-government militia. The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, warned the toll could rise, citing an unspecified number of wounded, some in serious condition. The war monitor said Russian warplanes launched strikes on IS positions in the desert, killing seven jihadists.

IS proclaimed a “caliphate” in June 2014 across swathes of Syria and Iraq and launched a reign of terror. It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019 but its remnants continue to carry out deadly hit-and-run attacks and ambushes, particularly from desert hideouts, targeting both pro-government forces and Kurdish-led fighters.

IS was blamed for a string of deadly attacks on government loyalists earlier this year. In August, 33 Syrian soldiers were killed when IS ambushed their bus in the desert near Mayadeen, in Deir Ezzor province, the Observatory said at the time.