DAMASCUS (AFP) – An attack on a military bus in northern Syria on Monday killed 13 soldiers and wounded two, Syrian state media reported.
According to state TV, the attack occurred in the province of Raqqah, which was once controlled by the Daesh terrorist group. The report did not say whether the bus was ambushed and attacked with machine gun fire, or whether it was hit by a missile or a roadside bomb.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the attack had all the hallmarks of Daesh terrorists who have carried out similar attacks over the past months, leaving dozens dead or wounded.
The foreign-backed militants proclaimed a so-called “caliphate” in a third of both Iraq and Syria in 2014 and the city of Raqqah was their de-facto capital. They were defeated in 2019 but Daesh sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks.
Syrian authorities blame such attacks on the Daesh group. The militants’ sleeper cells have been active in eastern, northern and central Syria.
Last month, a rocket attack on a military bus killed 10 soldiers and wounded nine more in northwest Syria.
The bus was attacked in the west of Aleppo province on May 13, SANA reported at the time.
Attackers hit the bus with an anti-tank missile, the news agency said.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, which took place near the frontier with militant-held territory close to the Turkish border.
Back on October 20 last year, a bomb attack on a bus carrying troops in the Syrian capital Damascus killed at least 14 military personnel and wounded three others.
Two explosive devices went off as the bus was near the Hafez al-Assad bridge, Syrian TV said, adding a third device was defused by an army engineering unit.
Since 2011, Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy, leading to the emergence of Daesh and other terrorist groups in the Arab country.
The Syrian government has repeatedly condemned the United States and the European Union for waging economic terrorism on the country through their unilateral sanctions, holding them responsible for the suffering of the Syrian people.
Damascus has also been critical of the United Nations for keeping silent on the destructive role of the U.S. and EU, among other parties supporting terrorism in Syria.