BEIRUT: Gunmen killed at least 15 people in Syria, mostly government soldiers traveling on a bus in the second such road ambush in recent days, a war monitor said Monday.
The ambush late Sunday resulted in the deaths of eight soldiers, four allied fighters and three civilians, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, updating an earlier toll.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the monitor said the Daesh group was to blame.
Another 15 people were wounded, with cars and fuel tankers also attacked, in the Wadi Al-Azib area of Hama province.
Syria’s official news agency SANA said the “terrorist attack” killed nine people, all civilians.
Last week, the IS group said it ambushed a bus on December 30 in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province, killing at least 37 soldiers.
The extremist group overran large parts of Syria and Iraq and proclaimed a cross-border “caliphate” there in 2014, before multiple offensives in the two countries led to its territorial defeat.
The group was overcome in Syria in March 2019, but sleeper cells continue to launch attacks.
More than 387,000 people have been killed and millions forced from their homes since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011.
At least 15 killed in Syria road attack
https://arab.news/2rfvw
At least 15 killed in Syria road attack
Syrian Democratic Forces withdraws from east of Aleppo
RIYADH: Syrian Democratic Forces have withdrawn from positions east of Aleppo, according to SDF head Mazloum Abdi.
He announced Friday that SDF will withdraw from east of Aleppo at 7 a.m. local time on Saturday and redeploy them to areas east of the Euphrates, citing calls from friendly countries and mediators.
Hours earlier, a US military designation had visited Deir Hafer and met with SDF officials in an apparent attempt to tamp down tensions.
The US has good relations with both sides and has urged calm. A spokesperson for the US military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shortly before Abdi’s announcement, interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa had announced issuance of a decree strengthening Kurdish rights.
A wave of displacement
Earlier in the day, hundreds of people carrying their belongings arrived in government-held areas in northern Syria ahead of the anticipated offensive by Syrian troops on territory held by Kurdish-led fighters.
Many of the civilians who fled were seen using side roads to reach government-held areas because the main highway was blocked at a checkpoint in the town of Deir Hafer controlled by the SDF.
The Syrian army said late Wednesday that civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and then extended the evacuation period another day, saying the SDF had stopped civilians from leaving.
There had been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides in the area before that.
Men, women and children arrived on the government side of the line in cars and pickup trucks that were packed with bags of clothes, mattresses and other belongings. They were met by local officials who directed them to shelters.
* with input from Reuters, AP
