In one of the bloodiest such operations, a bomb strike on a Syrian army bus outside Damascus on Thursday resulted in at least 18 soldiers being murdered and 27 others being injured.
According to the official SANA news agency, a terrorist explosion employing an explosive device that had been pre-planted struck a military transport in the outskirts of Damascus, killing 18 troops.
Without more explanation, the story said, “27 others were wounded.”
The latest in a string of bombs that have primarily been carried out by extremists and targeted Syrian army buses was not immediately known.
13 Syrian troops were murdered in a bus attack in the northern province of Raqqa in June, according to ISIS.
According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 15 soldiers were murdered in an ISIS attack on an army transport in the middle Syrian desert in March.
At least 13 persons were murdered in a bombing on an army transport in Damascus in October. There was no group that claimed it.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that since the Syrian crisis started in 2011, there have been about 500,000 fatalities.
22 million people, or 50 percent of Syria’s pre-war population, were compelled to leave their homes.
