Gunmen have ambushed a bus carrying Syrian soldiers in the country's east, killing at least 20 and wounding others, opposition activists said Friday.
The Thursday night attack was believed to be carried out by members of the Islamic State group whose sleeper cells in parts of Syria still carry deadly attacks despite their defeat in 2019.
Another activist collective that covers news in eastern Syria said 20 soldiers were killed and others were wounded.
IS controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq where they declared a caliphate in June 2014. Over the years they lost of the land and were defeated in Iraq in 2017 and two years later in Syria.
Last week, IS announced the death in Syria of its little-known leader, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi — who headed the extremist organization since November — and named his successor. He was the fourth to be killed since its founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in 2019 by US troops in northwest Syria.
