BEIRUT (AP) – A militant rocket attack in eastern Syria on Friday targeted a bus with oil industry employees, killing at least 10, the government said.
To the north of Syria, Kurdish-led forces announced they arrested 52 militants in an operation against the Daesh terrorist group’s sleeper cells.
According to Syria’s petroleum ministry, the rocket struck in the al-Taym gas field in eastern Dayr al-Zawr province. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Britain-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said Daesh was behind the attack.
The Observatory also reported a higher death toll from the rocket attack, saying at last 12 workers were killed.
Also Friday, the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces said their raids had reportedly thwarted an attack planned for New Year’s Eve. The Daesh terrorists were hiding in residential areas and farms, a statement from the forces said.
On Thursday, the Kurdish-led forces announced their operation, citing a surge in Daesh attacks and saying that “Operation Al-Jazeera Thunderbolt” aims to target sleeper cells in al-Hol and nearby in Tal Hamis areas.
The attack comes days after talks were held in Moscow between oil ministers from Syria, Russia and Turkey.
The meeting helped to thaw relations between Ankara and Damascus after the outbreak of the foreign-sponsored Syrian conflict more than a decade ago had raised tensions.
Back on December 2 last year, ten Syrians were killed and at least one wounded in an attack on an oil field near Dayr al-Zawr city, which lies on the Euphrates River to the east of the country.
Security conditions have been deteriorating in the areas controlled by the U.S.-led SDF in Syria’s northern and northeastern provinces of Raqqah, Hasakah, and Dayr al-Zawr amid ongoing raids and arrests of civilians by the U.S.-sponsored militants.
Locals argue that the SDF’s constant raids and arrest campaigns have generated a state of frustration and instability, severely affecting their businesses and livelihoods.
Residents accuse the U.S.-backed militants of stealing crude oil and failing to spend money on service sectors.