Members of the Daesh terrorist group have killed 11 Syrian government soldiers and their allied fighters, a monitor says.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that the government and pro-government forces were killed when their vehicle came under an attack by Daesh terrorists between al-Sokhna and al-Shula towns in an area straddling the central province of Homs and the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.
The UK-based monitor did not give further details about the attack but warned that the causality toll could rise.
About a month ago, a similar Daesh attack claimed the lives of at least 27 Syrian government forces and their allied fighters in the same area.
Observers say that border closures and mobilization of security resources due to the COVID-19 global pandemic could give rise to attacks by Daesh, which has already lost all of its urban strongholds in Syria and neighboring Iraq after receiving crushing defeats from government forces in both countries.
However, every so often, remnants of the terror group, hunkered down in desert hideouts, launch hit-and-run attacks against government forces and their allied fighters as well as on civilians in both courtiers.