Ten workers at an oil field in eastern Syria were killed in an attack attributed by an NGO to the Islamic State (IS) group on Friday, shortly after the launch of an anti-jihadi operation by the Kurds and the international coalition.
“Ten workers were killed and two others injured in a terrorist attack on three buses transporting workers from Al Taym field to Deir Ezzor,” the official Syrian agency Sana said without further ado, giving the nature and origin of the attack.
For the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), “the attack by ISIS-affiliated cells” was carried out near the oil field west of Deir Ezzor.
“The attack began with the detonation of explosive devices as the buses passed, before IS members began firing on the vehicles,” Rami Abdel, director of the observatory, told AFP Rahman.
IS regularly carries out attacks on military bases and vehicles in the Badia, the Syrian steppe stretching from Homs province (central) to Deir Ezzor on the Iraqi border.
This area, where jihadists have holed up since the fall of their self-proclaimed caliphate in March 2019, is still the scene of clashes, sometimes involving Russian planes supporting government forces attacking ISIS positions and movements.
ISIS attacks target both the Syrian army and its allies, and Kurdish forces, which Washington has long supported in their fight against ISIS.
anti-jihad operation
The attack announced today comes as Kurdish forces in Syria revealed on Thursday that they had launched an operation against ISIS in cooperation with the US-led international coalition three days after a deadly attack in the north of the country.
Kurdish fighters declared a state of emergency on Monday after an IS attack on their headquarters in Raqa that claimed six lives among their ranks.
“On December 29, our armed forces launched operation ‘Al Jazeera Blitz’ with the participation (…) of the international coalition against ISIS,” the Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement on Thursday. dominates).
The international coalition has not confirmed participation in the operation.
Backed by this alliance, the SDF led the fight against ISIS, which was driven out of its strongholds in Syria in 2019 after a meteoric rise in power in 2014 and the seizure of vast territories in that country and neighboring Iraq.
The operation that has just been launched aims to “eliminate the IS terrorist cells […] and drive them out of areas that were the scene of the recent terrorist attacks,” said the FDS.
Kurdish forces remember in particular Monday’s attack on their headquarters in Raqa, whose perpetrators failed to free jihadists from custody.
In its claim for Monday’s attack, IS said it wanted to “avenge” jihadists arrested by Kurdish forces.
Kurdish forces also mention “eight attempted attacks […] against the camp of al-Hol and in areas in Deir Ezzor and Hassaké” in the northeast.
In September, Kurdish forces announced the arrest of more than 200 jihadists in al-Hol camp since an operation began in late August following a surge in IS attacks.