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On February 18, at least 53 people were killed in Syria’s central region in a terrorist attack that was reportedly carried out by ISIS cells.
The attack targeted a military checkpoint and people collecting truffles to the southeast of the town of al-Sukhnah in the eastern Homs countryside.
The bodies of all victims taken to Palmyra National Hospital had gunshot wounds to the head, the Syrian Arab News Agency cited the hospital’s head as saying. 45 of the victims were civilians, while the rest were service members. Five people who were wounded by shrapnel were transferred to other hospitals. One of the survivors told the state-run agency that IS had burned their vehicles.
The terrorist attack near al-Sukhnah was the deadliest by ISIS cells in Syria since the start of this year. Exactly a week earlier, four civilians were killed and ten others were wounded in an area to the south of Palmyra in a similar attack by the group’s terrorists. The victims were also hunting for truffles, which are harvested in this time of the year.
ISIS has been waging an insurgency in Syria’s central region for more than five years. The terrorist group’s influence is especially strong in the eastern Homs countryside.
The terrorists usually attack civilians in the region to steal their vehicles, money and belongings as well as to prevent anyone from approaching their hideouts.
The recent terrorist attacks in the central region will likely provoke a fierce response from the Syrian military and its allies, who could soon launch a large-scale operation to push ISIS cells away from urban centers in the eastern Homs countryside.
