One day after US operation: At least 53 dead after IS attack in Syria

In a former IS stronghold in Syria, terrorists first attack a checkpoint before killing dozens of civilians searching for truffles near the desert city.

One day after US operation: At least 53 dead after IS attack in Syria

In a former IS stronghold in Syria, terrorists first attack a checkpoint before killing dozens of civilians searching for truffles near the desert city. The attack comes a day after US soldiers eliminated a high-ranking IS member.

According to activists and state media, at least 53 people were killed in an attack by the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) in Syria. The attack took place in the eastern city of Al-Suchna, according to the state agency Sana and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It is still unclear whether the attackers shot their victims or killed them with explosives.

The terrorists were armed and on motorcycles, said the head of the observatory, Rami Abdel-Rahman. First, the IS fighters attacked a checkpoint and killed at least seven soldiers, then killed 46 civilians.

According to the activists and Sana, people had collected truffles near the desert city before the attack. According to the observatory, several terrorists also managed to escape, along with a few victims.

Al-Suchna is located in the central province of Homs and became a strategically important IS bastion in 2015 before Syrian government troops expelled the terrorist militia from there two years later. Years ago, IS controlled large areas of Syria and neighboring Iraq. In the meantime, the IS has been defeated there militarily, but there are still active terrorist cells in both countries that carry out attacks.

Shortly before the attack became known, the US Department of Defense announced that the US military had killed a high-ranking IS member in a helicopter attack in north-eastern Syria. The Pentagon said Hamza al-Homsi, one of the IS leadership, died yesterday in a helicopter attack carried out by US forces in cooperation with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

During the operation, four US soldiers and a military dog ​​were injured by an explosion triggered by al-Homsi. They are currently being treated at a medical facility in Iraq and are in stable condition.

The responsible regional command of the US military (Centcom) also announced that al-Homsi led the IS network in eastern Syria. No other IS members were killed in the operation. In another operation on Thursday, however, a leader of an IS attack cell was killed. Civilians were not harmed. No SDF forces were injured either.