Islamic State attack in Raqqa kills 10 Syrian soldiers, second in a week

Islamic State militants launched a surprise attack on Syrian government positions in Syria’s northeast Raqqa province on Monday evening, killing at least 10 soldiers and pro-government fighters..

The attack, the second in a week by the group, wounded six others, some critically, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based war monitor, which relies on a broad network of sources on the ground, said IS gunmen attacked positions and checkpoints of the government forces and their allies in Maadan al-Atiq in the eastern countryside of Raqqa. Militants also set fire to military vehicles and houses in the area.

Raqqa had served as IS’ de facto capital in Syria when the group captured the province in 2014. In October 2017, the Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the US-led coalition, expelled the extremist group from its stronghold and took control of the province. Government forces hold small pockets in the south and east of Raqqa.

Despite losing its territory, IS continues to operate in Syria’s desert, launching sporadic attacks. Last week, suspected IS militants attacked a military oil convoy in the eastern countryside of Hama, leaving five soldiers dead. Since the start of this year, clashes and attacks by IS in the Syrian desert have killed 379 people, including government soldiers, Kurdish forces and civilians as well as  IS militants, according to the observatory.

Monday’s attack comes after IS confirmed the death of its leader, Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi, in northwest Syria on Aug. 3. In an undated audio recording shared on the group’s Telegram channel, IS spokesperson Abu Huthaifa al-Ansari said Quraishi was killed in clashes with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an al-Qaeda-linked jihadi group that controls Idlib province. Ansari did not say when Quraishi was killed.

In April, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced that Turkish intelligence forces killed Quraishi during a raid in Syria’s northern town of Jindires.

Quraishi was appointed in November 2022 after his predecessor, Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, was killed in battles in southern Syria. The latter replaced Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who reportedly killed himself during a US operation in the village of Barisha, near the Turkish border, in Idlib province in October 2019.

Car bombing in Damascus 

A car bomb went off in the Yusuf al-Azmeh suburb of Damascus Tuesday, according to local police. No casualties have been reported so far. Similar blasts have been reported in the area in the past weeks. In late July, at least six people were killed and 10 others injured when a car bomb exploded near Sayeda Zeinab shrine. The attack came days ahead of Ashura, the holy day where Shiites mark the anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson. Days earlier, a bomb planted in a motorcycle exploded near the shrine, wounding two civilians.

No group claimed responsibility for the recent attacks. But Sunni extremist groups including IS have made similar attacks on Shiites throughout the country’s civil war. In 2016, IS claimed responsibility for a double suicide attack near the same shrine that killed 134 people, including more than 90 civilians.

al-monitor