Islamic State group claims first attack on Syrian government 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 and a spokesperson for the Free Syrian Army didn't immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.
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.
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