Islamic State ‘executes’ eight Syrian troops

JIHADISTS from Islamic State (IS) have “executed” eight Syrian soldiers captured during an ambush, a war monitor said yesterday, reporting 14 troops killed by the group in recent days.

IS overran large swaths of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming its “caliphate” and launching a reign of terror. It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019 but its remnants continue to carry out deadly attacks there, particularly in the vast Badia desert that runs from the outskirts of Damascus to the Iraqi border.

They mainly set their sights on pro-government forces and Kurdishled fighters.

IS cells “executed eight members of the regime forces ... including an officer” after the ambush this week in the desert in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

The troops were heading from Sukhna towards the city of Deir Ezzor when they were attacked, the British-based observatory said, without specifying when they were killed.

IS jihadists also killed six other soldiers this week “after they were taken prisoner” during a separate ambush along the road between Sukhna and Palmyra in Homs province, said the observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

Since the start of the year, more than 200 soldiers and affiliated fighters have been killed in IS attacks, ambushes and explosions in the Syrian desert, including in Deir Ezzor, Homs and Raqqa provinces, the observatory said.

Jihadist attacks have killed at least 37 civilians during the same period, while government forces and affiliated fighters have killed 24 IS members, according to the observatory.

Last week, the monitor said an IS attack in northern Syria killed at least 11 people who were searching for desert truffles, a delicacy which fetches a high price in the war-torn country.

Between February and April each year, hundreds of impoverished Syrians risk their lives to forage for truffles in the desert which, in addition to being a jihadist hideout, is also littered with landmines.