The Jihadist group Islamic State (IS) killed 28 Syrian soldiers and pro-government fighters in two attacks. The jihadist group attacked a military bus in eastern Homs province and a base near the border with Iraq.
Most of the dead were members of a faction called the "Quds Brigade." The war in Syria, launched in 2011, after the government's brutal repression of pro-democracy demonstrations, has left more than half a million dead.. Since the start of the year, more than 268 pro- government soldiers and fighters have been killed in IS attacks, ambushes, and explosions, according to the Observatory. ISIS took control of swaths of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming its "caliphate" and launching a reign of terror before being defeated in 2019 by an international anti-jihadist coalition led by the U.S. and the Kurdish forces. The Observatory is an NGO based in the United Kingdom and with a vast network of sources in the country at war.. A previous report reported 20 deaths in these attacks.