Islamic State claims first attack on Syrian forces since Assad's fall

BEIRUT: The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for two attacks in southern Syria, including one on government forces that an opposition war monitor described as the first on the Syrian army to be adopted by the extremists since the fall of Bashar Assad.

In two separate statements issued late Thursday, IS said that in the first attack, a bomb was detonated targeting a "vehicle of the apostate regime," leaving seven soldiers dead or wounded. It said the attack occurred "last Thursday," or May 22, in the al-Safa area in the desert of the southern province of Sweida.

IS said that the second attack occurred this week in a nearby area during which a bomb targeted members of the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army, claiming that it killed one fighter and wounded three.

There was no comment from the government on the claim of the attack.

The Britain-based Syrian observatory for human rights said that the attack on government forces killed one civilian and wounded three soldiers, describing it as the first such attack to be claimed by IS against Syrian forces since the fall of the 54-year Assad family's rule in December.

IS, which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq, is opposed to the new authority in Damascus led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was once the head of al-Qaida's branch in Syria and fought battles against IS.

Over the past several months, IS has claimed responsibility for attacks against the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast.

IS was defeated in Syria in March 2019 when SDF fighters captured the last sliver of land that the extremists controlled. Since then, its sleeper cells have carried out deadly attacks, mainly in eastern and northeast Syria.

In January, state media reported that intelligence officials in Syria's post-Assad government thwarted a plan by IS to set off a bomb at a Shiite Muslim shrine south of Damascus.

Al-Sharaa met with US President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia earlier this month during which the American leader said that Washington would work on lifting crippling economic sanctions imposed on Damascus since the days of Assad.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement after the meeting that Trump urged al-Sharaa to diplomatically recognize Israel, "tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria" and help the US stop any resurgence of the Islamic State group.