According to Syrian state media, which cited an anonymous military source, an assault on a civilian bus in northern Syria on Monday resulted in the deaths of 13 persons, including 11 soldiers, as well as the wounding of three other personnel.
SANA, the state-run news agency, reports that the incident took place in the province of Raqqa, which at one point was under the control of the violent extremist organisation Islamic State. The report did not specify how the bus was destroyed; it did not state if it was ambushed and fired upon with machineguns, whether it was struck by a missile or a roadside bomb.
Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the assault had all the characteristics of IS terrorists who have carried out similar strikes over the previous several months, leaving scores of people dead or injured in each incident.
According to the military officer who did not want to be identified, the “terrorist assault” took place early in the morning while the bus was on its way to the central province of Homs. The incident resulted in the deaths of 11 soldiers as well as two civilians and injured three soldiers.
The terrorists announced the establishment of a so-called “caliphate” in 2014 throughout a third of both Iraq and Syria, and the city of Raqqa served as their de facto capital at that time. Despite the fact that they were destroyed in 2019, IS sleeper cells continue to carry out terrible strikes.
The Islamic State organisation is often held responsible for similar assaults by the Syrian government. The sleeper cells belonging to the terrorists have been active in the eastern, northern, and central regions of Syria.