“Two members of the 17th Division of the regime forces were killed, and a third was injured with various injuries after being targeted by two ISIS gunmen riding a motorcycle,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor.
The ambush took place near the town of Mahkan, in Deir ez-Zor’s Mayadin district – a stronghold for pro-Iran militias and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
It is the latest in a spate of ISIS attacks in Syria, particularly from the desert regions where jihadist cells maintain a presence.
ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called “caliphate.”
While the group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019, respectively, it still continues to pose serious security risks through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions, especially across the vast expanses of the Syrian desert as well as several Iraqi provinces.
At least 476 Syrian regime soldiers and pro-Iran militants have been killed by ISIS militants in Syria since the start of the year. The attacks have also killed 58 civilians, according to data from the Observatory.
