Syrian state media earlier said six people, without identifying them as soldiers, were killed near Wadi al Azeeb in the western part of the Syrian desert known as the Badia, east of the city of Hama, when their bus was targeted while on the road. State media said last Wednesday twenty-eight people were killed in a similar "terrorist" attack on a bus along a main highway in Deir al-Zor province that borders Iraq. Pro-Syrian army supporters later published on social media burning army vehicles in what residents and defectors said was an ambush on buses transporting soldiers returning to their barracks after leave. Islamic State's Amaq news agency a day later claimed responsibility for the ambush, saying it had killed 40 Syrian army soldiers and badly wounded six others. Western intelligence sources say there has been a rise in recent months of ambushes and hit-and-run attacks by remnants of Islamic State militants who take shelter in caves in the mainly rugged sparsely Syrian Badia.

Source: bd News24 January 03, 2021 23:03 UTC