28 killed in suspected Islamic State ambush on bus of Syrian regime soldiers 

The attack is believed to have targetted a bus transporting regime soldiers as they travelled home for holidays

At least 28 people were killed in a bus attack in southern Syria on Wednesday, said Syrian state media, in an attack that war monitors believe to be an Islamic State group attack on Syrian regime forces.

The state news agency Sana did not mention how the attack was carried out, but claimed it was a terrorist attack that killed 25 citizens and wounded 13 others.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based war monitor, said that 37 soldiers from the army’s elite 4th division were killed as they were travelling home for the holidays.

Syrian state media rarely admits military casualties.

The assailants set up a checkpoint on the road, then detonated the roadside bombs they had laid out, before opening fire on the bus, the war monitor said. Two other buses in the convoy managed to escape.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of SOHR, told AFP news agency that the ambush “was one of the deadliest attacks” since the fall of IS.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Despite the group’s territorial defeat in March 2019, IS sleeper cells continue to launch attacks, mostly in the vast stretches of desert between Homs and Deir Ezzor and near the Iraq border.

The attack took place on the road that connects the ancient city of Palmyra to Deir Ezzor. According to Sana it was in the Kobajjep area in southeastern Deir Ezzor province.

The area is where mostly Syrian army and Iranian-backed militias are based.

IS fighters frequently clash with forces loyal to Bashar al Assad in the area, but attacks of this magnitude have not been seen in over two years. If confirmed to be IS, it would be their biggest attack since their territorial defeat.

Deir Ezzor residents and intelligence sources told Reuters there has been a rise in recent months of ambushes and hit-and-run attacks by the remnant pockets of IS fighters.

Over the last few months, the local tribes have also been angered by executions that Iranian militias are committing in the area of dozens of nomads suspected to have affiliation to armed groups, they added.

Analysts claim that Wednesday night’s attack is further evidence of Damascus’ inability to contain IS.