Attack blamed on IS militants kills 22 pro-government fighters in Syria

2024-04-19 09:00:03

BEIRUT (AP) — An attack by suspected members of the Islamic State extremist group once morest pro-government fighters left 22 dead in central Syria, an opposition group that monitors the war and media related to the Damascus government reported on Friday.

Gunmen attacked a bus carrying members of the Quds Brigade — a government- and Russian-backed faction made up of mostly Palestinian fighters in Syria — near the town of Sukhna on Thursday night. Sukhna was once a stronghold of radical militia.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that monitors the war, and the pro-government radio station Sham FM said IS was behind the attack. .

Although both reported the death of 22 combatants, Sham FM stated that they were members of the Quds Brigade and the opposition group pointed out that the majority belonged to the group.

The Quds Brigade fought on the side of the Syrian government during the 13-year civil war, which has claimed the lives of more than half a million people and displaced half of the country’s 23 million inhabitants before the conflict began. .

The Quds Brigade is not the military arm of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, although they share a name.

Despite its defeat in Syria in March 2019, IS sleeper cells have been blamed for several deadly attacks once morest government forces in Damascus and members of the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

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