Four soldiers killed in bomb blast on Syrian Defence Ministry bus
Four Syrian soldiers were killed on Thursday when a bomb exploded on a Defence Ministry bus in the country’s east, with several others wounded.
It said the soldiers were working at a plant in the oil-rich region that borders Iraq. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine were injured.
Oil Minister Mohammed Al Bashir said the troops were on their way to work as guards at the oil base. State-run Al Ikhbariah TV said the blast occurred on the road linking the cities of Deir Ezzor and Mayadeen.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but the area is known to be home to sleeper cells of ISIS, which was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019.
ISIS, which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq, opposes the new authorities in Damascus led by President Ahmad Al Shara, who once led an Al Qaeda branch in Syria and fought battles against ISIS.
The incident is the deadliest in the eastern region, which produces most of Syria’s oil and wheat, since the fall of former Syrian president Bashar Al Assad last year. Three months ago, members of ISIS sleeper cells attacked a police station in Mayadeen.
The latest attack took place near areas east of the Euphrates controlled by the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces. Tension between government forces and the SDF have risen in recent weeks, with skirmishes erupting in Aleppo before a ceasefire was declared last week.
The region lies along the border with Iraq and is divided by the Euphrates between areas controlled by the state and the US-backed SDF, which controls Syria’s oilfields east of the river.
