According to the Syrian government’s official news agency SANA, the terrorist attack on the bus on the Deir ez-Zor-Palmyra road resulted in the death of 28 civilians and in the injury of eight. However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based activist group, reported that ISIS targeted a convoy carrying soldiers and pro-government fighters who were returning to their base, killing 37 of them, while injuring 12. Some of the latter were in “critical conditions”.
The assault appeared to be a well-planned operation, said SOHR. The assailants detonated bombs before opening fire at the bus, which was ambushed close to the village of Shula. Luckily, two additional buses which were part of the convoy managed to escape. No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the barbaric attack yet, which was “one of the deadliest attacks since the fall of the ISIS self-proclaimed caliphate”, as reported by Rami Abdel Rahman, the Observatory head.
In spite of the group’s loss of control over its territory in the Deir ez-Zor desert in March 2019, the group remains one of the greatest threats of the region. As reported by Deir ez-Zor residents and intelligence sources, ambushes and hit-and-run attacks by ISIS have been on the rise, whose militants continue to place mines and improvised explosive devices in the province and on the border with Iraq.
To know more, please read:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/31/syria-dozens-killed-in-isis-bus-attack
Author: Barbara Caltabiano; Editor: Gianmarco Italia
