The Islamic State has carried out some of the deadliest attacks against Syrian government and civilian targets in a single day.
The Islamic state left Southern Syria awash with blood after carrying out a string of deadly suicide blasts and raids that claimed the lives of 220 people on Wednesday.
Islamic state hit several areas of the largely government-held southern province of Sweida, where the terrorist organisation retains a presence in the northeastern desert region.
This latest string of attacks comes almost a week into a Russia-backed regime campaign to oust Islamic State fighters from one of their last strongholds in the country’s south.
Claiming responsibility for the suicide attacks, the Islamic State said soldiers of the caliphate attacked Syrian government positions and security outposts in Sweida city, and detonated explosive belts.
Four suicide bombers were used to attack Sweida city while others attacked small villages to the north and east while shooting residents in their homes. This resulted in 221 deaths which included 127 civilians and 94 dead were pro-regime fighters and residents who took up arms to defend their homes.
Most of the fatal casualties were found in Sweida’s northern countryside, where the bodies of civilians executed inside their homes were found. Majority of Sweida residents are from the Druze minority that has been relatively insulated from the war that has ravaged the rest of the country since 2011.
The attacks came to an end when regime forces eventually ousted Islamic State from several villages occupied by its fighters during the attacks; 38 Islamic State fighters were also killed, including the suicide attackers.
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Reacting to news of the attacks, Syrian President Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said as he received Russia’s Syrian envoy Alexander Lavrentiev, “Today’s crime shows that countries supporting terrorism are trying to breathe life back into the terrorist organisation to keep it as a card in their hand that they will use to achieve political gains,”
“These attempts will only succeed in… shedding more innocent blood,” he added