Suspected Islamic State militants attacked a Syrian military convoy in the Syrian desert overnight on Monday, resulting in the death of five government soldiers and the injury of four others, according to a war monitor.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said in a Tuesday report that the attack on the convoy, which included oil tankers, occurred on the Raqqa-Sulaymaniyah road in the eastern countryside of Hama.
Nine militants were killed and injured in the shootout that erupted following the attack, the local Athr Press website reported, adding that four tankers caught fire during the incident.
IS lost its last Syrian stronghold of Raqqa in March 2019 following an operation led by the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. Since then, IS sleeper cells holed up in the Syrian desert have carried out sporadic attacks against government and SDF positions in the area. In response, the Syrian army, backed by Russian air power, launched a military campaign against IS’ last remnants.
