SOHR: At least 13 killed in attack in Raqqa

At least 13 people, including Syrian military servicemen and civilians were killed in a terrorist attack in Syria’s Raqqa province on Monday, Syrian state media reported, while a war monitor attributed the attack to the Islamic State (ISIS).

According to the Syrian state owned media (SANA), the attack was conducted at around 6:30am on a civilian passenger bus, killing eleven soldiers and two civilians, and leaving three other soldiers wounded.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported the death of 15 service members, attributing the attack to remnants of ISIS, adding that the number of casualties is “likely to rise, as some of the wounded are in critical conditions.”

The incident marks the deadliest attack of its kind since a similar ambush in March also killed 15 people in the Palmyra region, AFP reported.

ISIS seized control of swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, declaring a so-called caliphate in 2014 with Raqqa as its capital, but the terror group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 respectively. The terror group continues to launch deadly attacks from the Syrian desert, which extends from the Syria’s capital of Damascus to the Iraqi border.

Earlier this month, Dozens of soldiers were killed and injured in an attack on a military bus in the Syrian desert with SOHR blaming ISIS for the attack.

In the latest edition of its weekly propaganda al-Nabaa magazine published Thursday, ISIS claimed it carried out four attacks over the past week in Syria, killing and injuring seven people. The group has not claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack.