Syria war: More than 200 dead in suicide attacks

International Desk: Islamic State militants have killed more than 200 people in a coordinated assault on a government-held area of south-western Syria, local officials and a war monitor said, in the group's deadliest attack in the country for years.

The coordinated attacks across the province of Sweida, which included several suicide bombings, shattered the calm of a region that has been largely insulated from the worst of the violence of Syria's seven-year-long civil war.

The suicide bomb blasts inside the provincial capital, also called Sweida, were apparently timed to coincide with attacks on villages in the eastern countryside, creating mayhem across the province.

The attacks triggered deadly clashes between pro-government fighters and residents who picked up weapons to defend their hometowns on one side and IS militants on the other.

By nightfall, the province's health directorate had recorded 215 civilians killed and 180 wounded, according to local official Hassan Omar, making it the single bloodiest day for the province since the 2011 national revolt that sparked the ongoing civil war.

Sultan Bou Ammar, a resident of the village of Shbiki, said some residents unwittingly opened their doors when militants knocked early Thursday morning, so unexpected was the attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 200 people were killed, including 94 residents who were part of local defence militias that have the backing of the Syrian Government.

The head of the Sweida provincial health authority told the pro-Damascus Sham FM 75 Islamic State fighters had also been killed.

Syrian state media aired graphic scenes of two blast sites within Sweida city, one showing the bodies of victims and another the aftermath of a motorcycle bombing that struck a busy vegetable market.



The coordinated attacks — the deadliest in months — had all the hallmarks of IS even before it claimed responsibility and were reminiscent of the group's horrific assaults during past years in Syria, already ravaged by civil war.

A statement posted on IS social media channels said militants carried out surprise attacks on government and security centres in Sweida, sparking clashes with Syrian troops and allied militias before detonating their explosive belts.

State news agency SANA said two other IS militants were killed before they could detonate their bombs.

Sweida Governor Amer al-Eshi said authorities also arrested another attacker.

Agencies


risingbd/Dhaka/July 26, 2018/Nasim