BEIRUT: An attack by Daesh group militants on Syrian government forces in the war-torn country’s east has killed 33 soldiers, a monitor said Saturday, revising an earlier toll of 26 deaths.
The shooting Thursday evening on an army bus was the extremist group’s deadliest attack on government forces this year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Despite losing their last piece of territory in Syria in 2019, Daesh has maintained hideouts in the vast Syrian desert from which it has carried out ambushes and hit-and-run attacks.
“The death toll from the army bus attack rose to 33 soldiers,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the British-based monitoring group which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria.
The militants surrounded the bus in the desert near Mayadeen, in Deir Ezzor province, and opened fire, the Observatory reported on Friday.
Daesh claimed the attack later Friday, saying its fighters had carried out an ambush “on two military buses,” targeting them “with heavy weapons and rocket-propelled grenades” and setting one on fire, according to a statement from the militants’ Amaq news agency.
Syrian state news agency SANA said the “terrorist attack” had caused a number of military casualties, citing an army source.
Abdel Rahman said Daesh “has recently been escalating its deadly military attacks... aiming to cause as many deaths as possible.”
By doing so, the militants are trying to show that Daesh “is still active and powerful despite the targeting of its leaders,” he said.
Last week, Daesh announced the death of its leader Abu Al-Hussein Al-Husseini Al-Qurashi, who it said was killed in clashes in northwestern Syria, and named a successor.
Daesh members in recent weeks have increased their attacks in Syria’s north and northeast.
Earlier this week, 10 Syrian soldiers and pro-government fighters were killed in an Daesh attack in the former militant stronghold of Raqqa province, the Observatory said.
Syria’s war broke after President Bashar Assad’s government crushed peaceful protests in 2011. It has since drawn in foreign powers and global militants.
The conflict has killed more than half a million people and driven half of the country’s pre-war population from their homes.
Death toll in Daesh attack on Syria army bus rises to 33: Monitor
https://arab.news/gnhn6
Death toll in Daesh attack on Syria army bus rises to 33: Monitor
- Shooting on an army bus was the extremist group’s deadliest attack on government forces this year
- Daesh claimed the attack later Friday, saying its fighters had carried out the ambush
Iran temporarily closes airspace to most flights
WASHINGTON: Iran temporarily closed its airspace to all flights except international ones to and from Iran with official permission at 5:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to a notice posted on the Federal Aviation Administration’s website.
The prohibition is set to last for more than two hours until 7:30 p.m. ET, or 0030 GMT, but could be extended, the notice said. The United States was withdrawing some personnel from bases in the Middle East, a US official said on Wednesday, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighbors it would hit American bases if Washington strikes.
Missile and drone barrages in a growing number of conflict zones represent a high risk to airline traffic. India’s largest airline, IndiGo said some of its international flights would be impacted by Iran’s sudden airspace closure. A flight by Russia’s Aeroflot bound for Tehran returned to Moscow after the closure, according to tracking data from Flightradar24.
Earlier on Wednesday, Germany issued a new directive cautioning the country’s airlines from entering Iranian airspace, shortly after Lufthansa rejigged its flight operations across the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region.
The United States already prohibits all US commercial flights from overflying Iran and there are no direct flights between the countries. Airline operators like flydubai and Turkish Airlines have canceled multiple flights to Iran in the past week. “Several airlines have already reduced or suspended services, and most carriers are avoiding Iranian airspace,” said Safe Airspace, a website run by OPSGROUP, a membership-based organization that shares flight risk information.
“The situation may signal further security or military activity, including the risk of missile launches or heightened air defense, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic.” Lufthansa said on Wednesday that it would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace until further notice while it would only operate day flights to Tel Aviv and Amman from Wednesday until Monday next week so that crew would not have to stay overnight.
Some flights could also be canceled as a result of these actions, it added in a statement. Italian carrier ITA Airways, in which Lufthansa Group is now a major shareholder, said that it would similarly suspend night flights to Tel Aviv until Tuesday next week.
