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Nearly 250 dead in IS attacks on south Syria: new toll
BEIRUT, July 26, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The death toll in coordinated Islamic
State group suicide bombings and shootings in southern Syria rose to nearly
250 overnight, more than half of them civilians, a monitor said Thursday.
Wednesday’s attacks hit Sweida, a Druze-majority province mostly held by
the government which had remained relatively insulated from the country’s
seven-year civil war.
The death toll climbed steadily throughout the day and into the night, the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said.
“The toll is now 246 people dead, including 135 civilians,” said
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.
The others killed were pro-government fighters or residents who had taken
up arms to defend their villages.
“The toll keeps rising as civilians who were wounded are dying and people
who were unaccounted for are found dead,” Abdel Rahman told AFP.
The onslaught began with a triple suicide bombing in the city of Sweida,
which was followed by attacks with guns and explosives on villages to its
north and east.
A fourth blast hit the provincial capital later in the day.
IS claimed the assault hours later. At least 45 jihadists died carrying it
out, the Observatory said.
It was the worst bloodshed to hit Sweida province since the civil war
began in 2011.
Syrian state media reported deadly attacks on Sweida and surrounding
villages but did not give a specific toll.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1200 hrs