DAMASCUS: Gunmen in eastern Syria on Sunday ambushed a bus carrying government troops, killing three and wounding 10, state media said, the latest in a string of attacks.
“Three soldiers were killed, and 10 others were wounded after a bus came under attack by terrorist groups on a road,” Syria’s official SANA news agency said.
The attack took place in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, it said.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Daesh extremist group was responsible.
“A bus carrying Syrian soldiers was targeted by the Daesh group in the Shula desert” in Deir Ezzor, it said.
Daesh overran large parts of Syria and Iraq and proclaimed a cross-border “caliphate” 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.
In recent months it has ramped up attacks against Syrian regime forces, especially in the east of the country bordering Iraq.
After a series of Daesh bus ambushes this month, regime forces launched a Russian-backed campaign on January 16 to secure a key artery in east Syria, according to the Observatory.
Russian warplanes launched more than 130 strikes targeting Daesh hideouts in an area stretching between Deir Ezzor and Homs province, according to the war monitor.
More than 387,000 people have been killed and millions forced from their homes since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011.
Three Syrian soldiers killed in bus ambush: state media
https://arab.news/zc6yq
Three Syrian soldiers killed in bus ambush: state media
- The attack took place in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor: state media
- The Syrian Observatory said the Daesh extremist group was responsible
Syrian government, Kurds to extend truce: sources to AFP
- No official announcement has yet come from Damascus or SDF, but two sources said truce is to be extended by one month
DAMASCUS: The Syrian government and Kurdish forces have agreed to extend a ceasefire set to expire Saturday, as part of a broader deal on the future of Kurd-majority areas, several sources told AFP.
No official announcement has yet come from Damascus or the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but two sources said the truce is to be extended by one month.
On Tuesday, Damascus and the SDF agreed to a four-day ceasefire after Kurdish forces relinquished swathes of territory to government forces, which also sent reinforcements to a Kurdish stronghold in the northeast.
A diplomatic source in Damascus told AFP the ceasefire, due to expire on Saturday evening, will be extended “for a period of up to one month at most.”
A Kurdish source close to the negotiations confirmed “the ceasefire has been extended until a mutually acceptable political solution is reached.”
A Syrian official in Damascus said the “agreement is likely to be extended for one month,” adding that one reason is the need to complete the transfer of Daesh group militant detainees from Syria to Iraq.
All sources requested anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to the media.
After the SDF lost large areas to government forces, Washington said it would transfer 7,000 Daesh detainees to prisons in Iraq.
Europeans were among 150 senior IS detainees who were the first to be transferred on Wednesday, two Iraqi security officials told AFP.
The transfer is expected to last several days.
Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, but backed by a US-led coalition, the SDF ultimately defeated the group and went on to jail thousands of suspected militants and detain tens of thousands of their relatives.
The truce between Damascus and the Kurds is part of a new understanding over Kurdish-majority areas in Hasakah province, and of a broader deal to integrate the Kurds’ de facto autonomous administration into the state.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s Islamist forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in 2024.
The new authorities are seeking to extend state control across Syria, resetting international ties including with the United States, now a key ally.
The Kurdish source said the SDF submitted a proposal to Damascus through US envoy Tom Barrack that would have the government managing border crossings — a key Damascus demand.
It also proposes that Damascus would “allocate part of the economic resources — particularly revenue from border crossings and oil — to the Kurdish-majority areas,” the source added.
Earlier this month, the Syrian army recaptured oil fields, including the country’s largest, while advancing against Kurdish forces.
