Death toll mounts to 246 after ISIS launched a string of suicide attacks in southern Syria

Damascus, July 27: The death toll in a series of suicide attacks and shooting led by Islamic State terror outfit in southern Syria mounted to nearly 250 including personnel of Syrian forces and civilians.

 

On Wednesday, a series of suicide blasts and shooting killed at least 246 people including personnel of Syrian forces in southern Syria. Notably, this was one of the most deadly assaults in the country by ISIS. Immediately after the attack, ISIS terror outfit claimed the responsibility saying soldiers of the caliphate attacked Syrian government positions and security outposts in Sweida city, then detonated their explosive belts.

An ISIS suicide bomber detonated himself at a busy vegetable market in the city of Sweida, some 120 km south from the capital Damascus. Later, ISIS terrorists mounted attacks on several villages to the northeast left killing over 200 people.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) chief Rami Abdel Rahman said that the toll is 246 people dead, including 135 civilians. “The others killed were pro-regime fighters or residents who had taken up arms to defend their villages,” he added.

The suicide attacks came almost a week after Russia-backed regime campaign to oust IS fighters from a holdout in a neighbouring province of the country's south began. However, all the 30 ISIS terrorists including the suicide attackers were eliminated.

Importantly, ISIS overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014 but has since lost most of that territory. Over 350,000 people have been killed while millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.