Daesh attack near Syria oil wells kills 9 fighters

BEIRUT — Extremist fighters killed nine Syrian soldiers and allied militiamen in an ambush near oil installations in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported on Monday.

"Nine army soldiers and allied militia fighters were killed in an ambush by Daesh near oil wells, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The attack was carried out late Sunday in a remote region on the edge of the eastern province of Deir Ezzor where extremist units have their hideouts, the monitor said.

The rocket attack on a convoy also left 15 pro-government fighters wounded, the UK-based organisation said.

The Syrian state news agency SANA reported five dead in a Daesh ambush on a military convoy.

The extremist organisation, which once reigned over a sprawling proto-state straddling swathes of Iraq and Syria, lost its last fixed positions in March 2019 but its remnants have kept up deadly guerrilla-style attacks.

Since the defeat of its self-proclaimed "caliphate", Daesh attacks have killed close to 1,800 government and allied forces in Syria.

A Daesh attack on a bus on December 2 killed 10 oil field workers in Deir Ezzor province, the latest in a string of attacks targeting the oil sector.