War Monitor: ISIS Group Kills Nine Syrian Soldiers

Members of the terrorist ISIS in Syria. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
Members of the terrorist ISIS in Syria. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
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War Monitor: ISIS Group Kills Nine Syrian Soldiers

Members of the terrorist ISIS in Syria. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
Members of the terrorist ISIS in Syria. (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)

ISIS militants killed nine Syrian soldiers in the war-torn country's vast Badia desert on Tuesday, a war monitor said.

"Nine Syrian soldiers were killed and three wounded" when they had gathered in the east of Hama province in central Syria, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, AFP reported.

ISIS has stepped up attacks in Syria in recent months, particularly in the Badia desert which runs from the outskirts of Damascus to the Iraqi border.

On February 2, the extremist group killed five members of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said the Britain-based Observatory.

An ISIS attack on January 9 killed at least 14 government soldiers in the east of Homs province, said the monitor, which relies on a network of sources in Syria for its reports.

The terrorist group overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming its "caliphate" and launching a reign of terror.

It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019 but its remnants continue to carry out deadly hit-and-run attacks and ambushes, particularly from desert hideouts.

Syria has been devastated by a civil war triggered in 2011 by the repression of pro-democracy protests and which has resulted in more than half a million deaths.



Gaza Rescuers Say 72 Killed by Israeli Fire

Smoke billows after an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 19, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 19, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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Gaza Rescuers Say 72 Killed by Israeli Fire

Smoke billows after an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 19, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 19, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli fire killed at least 72 people in the Palestinian territory on Thursday, including 21 who had gathered to receive aid in central and southern Gaza.

Updating an earlier figure, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the death toll had risen to 72, "due to the ongoing Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip since dawn today -- 21 of them were waiting for aid.”

The Israeli army told AFP that troops had fired "warning shots" at "suspects" approaching them in the Netzarim area where the civil defense agency said 15 people were killed waiting for aid, but that it was "not aware of any injured individuals.”