A group that goes by “Ashbal al-Qadisiyah” burned a Khomeini poster hanging on a lamppost in the Euphrates Basin area in the east Syria city of Deir Ezzor. They later fled the scene to an unknown destination.
Earlier, activists speaking to a UK-based war monitor reported that an IED explosion had targeted a vehicle carrying militiamen affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the southern Deir Ezzor Desert. However, no casualties have been reported yet.
Moreover, activists from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented the injury of regime-backed Al-Qatarji militiamen in the explosion of an old landmine.
The landmine detonated while the group was leading an inspection tour and a combing operation near Al-Taym oil field in Deir Ezzor’s countryside on the Damascus highway.
Observatory sources also revealed the identity of the deaths in an attack waged by ISIS fighters that targeted a bus in Al-Shula desert in the southern countryside of Deir Ezzor.
The fatalities were as follows: Three soldiers who work with Iranian-backed militias and carry personal cards issued by the regime’s security services “as a camouflage”, and a civilian who was on the bus.
According to Observatory sources, the fighters are from Hama, Homs and Raqqah provinces and they were in civilian clothes on the bus heading home to spend their vacation when ISIS fighters attacked the bus carrying civilians and fighters.
Moreover, the Observatory released a report documenting the growing Iranian influence in Syria.
“Iran and its proxy militias have unprecedented influence in most areas under the “symbolic” regime control, as neither attacks by Israel and the International Coalition, nor the “cold war” with Russia could hinder the alarming entrenchment and expansion of these forces across Syria,” said the report.
“Strengthening their presence and promoting their ideology, the Iranians are still carrying on with their systematic plan to change the demography of different areas throughout Syria’s geography,” it added.