Beirut, Aug 1 (EFE).- At least five soldiers were killed and four were injured in an attack by Islamic State (IS) fighters on a military convoy in northeastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Tuesday.
The Islamic State attackers ambushed the military convoy – that included tanks carrying oil – on a road in northeastern Hama province of the country, the UK-based war-monitoring group said.
The armed attack resulted “in the death of five members (of the Syrian forces) and the injury of four others, in addition to the burning of a number of the tanks,” it added.
SOHR attributed the attack to the IS militants, although neither the extremist outfit nor any other group have yet claimed responsibility for the ambush.
Although the IS was defeated in Syria more than four years ago, the group still has active cells in various parts of the country, particularly in the vast central Badia deserts.
The desert region, which spans several Syrian provinces and beyond the nation’s borders, is often the scene of ambushes and confrontation between the Islamic State militants and Syrian government forces.
Russia, an ally of the government at Damascus, often provides air support to the Syrian army in anti-terrorism operations in Badia.
According to SOHR statistics, so far this year at least 367 people – 192 soldiers, 155 civilians and 20 militants – have died in militant ambushes and military operations in the Syrian desert region. EFE
njd/bks/sc
