Death toll of suspected ISIS attack in Syria rises to 68
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Syrian Kurdish Asayish security forces conducting a raid against suspected Islamic State in Iraq and Syria fighters in Raqqa, the militant group's former de facto capital in Syria, on Jan 29, 2023.
PHOTO: AFP
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BEIRUT - The death toll from an attack blamed on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group in Syria has risen to 68, a war monitor said on Saturday, the deadliest strike in over a year.
“A total of 61 civilians and seven soldiers were killed in the attack,” said Mr Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based Observatory, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria, said the attack was carried out on Friday by militants on motorcycles who opened fire on truffle hunters.
The monitor said ISIS took advantage of the annual harvest of the desert fungus delicacy, which generally runs from February to April, to carry out attacks in remote locations.
ISIS did not immediately claim the attack on its usual channels.
Syrian state media had reported 53 deaths on Friday, after the attack in the south-west town of Al-Sokhna.
It was the deadliest attack by ISIS since January 2022, when militants stormed a prison in the Kurdish-controlled north-eastern city of Hasakeh in a bid to free fellow extremists.
The resulting fighting inside the city killed 105 people, mostly civilians, as well as 268 militants.
US kills ISIS leader
Separately on Friday, the US Central Command said four American military personnel were injured in a blast during a raid that killed a senior ISIS leader in Syria.
The ISIS leader was identified as Hamza al-Homsi, and the US troops and a working dog were being treated at an American medical facility in Iraq, it added.
Many people, including women and children, have been targeted in recent years while truffle hunting in central, north-eastern and eastern areas of Syria.
Sixteen people, mostly civilians, were killed on Saturday in a similar attack targeting foragers in the same area, said the Observatory.
Dozens of others were kidnapped in the attack, the Observatory said, adding that 25 of them were freed on Friday but the fate of the rest remains unknown.
In April 2021, the extremist group launched a similar attack, abducting 19 people, mostly civilians, in the eastern countryside of Hama province.
After the militants lost their last scraps of territory following a military onslaught backed by a US-led coalition in March 2019, ISIS remnants in Syria mostly retreated to hideouts in the desert.
They have since used such hideouts to ambush Kurdish-led forces and Syrian government troops while continuing to mount attacks in neighbouring Iraq.
Syrian and Russian helicopters continue to launch air strikes targeting ISIS desert hideouts.
The United Nations has said that despite setbacks, the extremist group has “maintained its ability to launch attacks at a steady pace”.
It estimates the group maintains between 6,000 and 10,000 fighters inside Iraq and Syria, exploiting the porous border between the two countries and concentrating mainly in rural areas. AFP
