Damascus (TDI): The Daesh group has claimed responsibility for two attacks in southern Syria, including one on government troops that an opposition war monitor described as the first on the Syrian military to be claimed by the militants since the fall of Bashar Assad.
In two separate statements issued late Thursday, Daesh stated that in the first attack, a bomb was detonated aimed at a “vehicle of the apostate regime,” leaving 7 security personnel dead or injured. It said the attack was carried out “last Thursday,” or May 22, in the Al-Safa area in the desert of the southern province of Sweida.
The group stated that the second attack was carried out this week in a nearby area during which a bomb hit members of the US-backed Free Syrian Army, claiming that it killed one fighter and injured three, according to AP.
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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the attack on government troops killed one civilian and injured three soldiers, terming it as the first such attack to be claimed by Daesh against Syrian military since the fall of the 54-year Assad family’s rule in December.
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Daesh, which once controlled large swaths of Syria and Iraq, is opposed to the new government in Damascus led by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who was once the chief of Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria and fought battles against Daesh.
Over the past several months, the groups has claimed responsibility for attacks against the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast.