Gunmen in eastern Syria ambushed a bus carrying government troops on Sunday, killing three and wounding 10, state media said, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
“Three soldiers were killed, and 10 others were wounded after a bus came under attack by terrorist groups,” Syria’s official SANA news agency said.
The attack took place in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, it said.
The Islamic State group claimed the attack in a statement released by its propaganda arm via social media. “IS fighters today attacked a convoy of Syrian army vehicles including busses carrying soldiers” west of Deir Ezzor city, it said.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said IS was responsible.
IS overran large parts of Syria and Iraq and proclaimed a cross-border “caliphate” in 2014, before multiple offensives in the two countries led to its territorial defeat.
The group was defeated in Syria in March 2019, but sleeper cells continue to launch attacks.
In recent months it has ramped up attacks against Syrian regime forces, especially in the east of the country bordering Iraq.
After a series of IS bus ambushes this month, regime forces launched a Russian-backed campaign on January 16 to secure a key artery in east Syria, according to the Observatory.
Russian warplanes launched more than 130 strikes targeting IS hideouts in an area stretching between Deir Ezzor and Homs province, according to the war monitor.
More than 387,000 people have been killed and millions forced from their homes since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011.