ISIS militants attacked a military bus in the Syrian desert on Tuesday, killing at least 14 Syrian army soldiers, the anti-Assad Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.
"At least 14 members of the regime forces were killed" and several others wounded "in a bloody [ISIS] attack on a military bus" in the desert near the ancient city of Palmyra, SOHR said.
The organization has carried out few attacks in recent months but has stepped up its activities recently. ISIS also killed nine Syrian army soldiers and allied fighters in an attack on military posts in the eastern Syrian desert last week, according to the British-based monitor.
ISIS also claimed credit for a terror attack in Iran last week which killed 91 pilgrims visiting the grave of Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general assassinated by the US in Iraq in 2020 and who spear headed the war against ISIS.
ISIS and its spin-off, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (previously the Nusra Front), are widely viewed as Israeli-US proxies. The groups played a crucial role in sparking a war in Syria to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad and to divide Iraq for the sake of establishing an independent Kurdish state able export oil to Israel.
The terror attack in Iran came amid a broader US and Israeli campaign to target leaders of the Iran-aligned 'Axis of Resistance'.
One day before the attack at Soleimani’s grave, Israel assassinated top Hamas leader, Saleh al-Arouri, in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut. On January 5, the US targeted Mushtaq Talib al-Saidi, a leader of Harakat al-Nujaba, which is part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). On January 8, Israel assassinated a top Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil in southern Lebanon.
ISIS carried out a major attack in Iran in June 2017, targeting both the Iranian Parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini, killing 16.
In October 2022, ISIS militants opened fire on visitors to a important Shiite holy site in the city of Shiraz, killing at least 15 and wounding dozens.