DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – A Syrian general and eight troops have been killed in a terrorist bombing attack outside the capital city Damascus, says a UK-based monitoring group.
According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the government forces were killed when an explosive device planted by terrorists went off in a tunnel in the town of Harasta, located to the northeast of the capital.
"The explosion killed a Syrian officer at the rank of general, and eight other members of the government forces, and wounded several people," said the director of the observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman.
He noted that the death toll would probably rise as a number of the wounded were in critical condition and that 15 people were still unaccounted for.
The developments come as the Syrian government and opposition terrorists have announced the names of their delegation heads for the upcoming peace talks in Kazakhstan.
Syria's Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Ja'afari was named as the head of the government’s delegation for the intra-Syrian talks in Astana, scheduled for January 23. The talks would focus strictly on military developments and reinforcement of the ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia, Turkey, and Iran.
The Syrian government’s delegation "will be led by Syrian diplomat and permanent representative to the United Nations Bashar al-Ja’afari,” said a report in Syria's Al-Watan daily, adding that the government’s team will also include "figures representing the military and the Syrian judiciary, so that the delegation will represent the whole Syrian state.”
The foreign-sponsored terrorist groups will be represented by Mohammad Alloush, the head of the political office of the so-called Jaish al-Islam terrorist group. Their delegation will also include some 20 other people.
The negotiations, which exclude the Daesh and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham terrorist groups, will be held in the wake of a nationwide ceasefire in Syria, which was endorsed by the UN Security Council on December 31.
Meanwhile, the United States vowed to step up support for the Turkish forces by conducting airstrikes in Syria’s al-Bab, the American military spokesman for the so-called U.S.-led coalition against Daesh terrorists said.
U.S. Air Force Colonel John Dorrian added that four strikes had recently been conducted near the Syrian town.
"These strikes eliminated Daesh's capabilities around the forward line of enemy troops near the city," Dorrian said. "This is something we expect to continue doing… Those targets were mutually developed, and we decided to strike them."
The two countries’ military officers "will continue to work in combined headquarters, de-conflicting, coordinating and developing targets to maximize effects against Daesh, and avoid negative effects on this complex and crowded battlefield.”
Syria has been fighting foreign-sponsored terrorism over the past almost six years. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated in August last year that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the Syrian crisis until then. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.