“Two members of the National Defense Forces [NDF] militia were killed and three others were injured as a result of an IED explosion planted by ISIS members,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor.
The fighters were struck by the IED as their vehicle passed over the explosive in the eastern countryside of Syria’s Hama province, the monitor added.
The attack comes amid a large-scale sweeping operation by Damascus in areas where the extremist group remains active. Attacks by ISIS in Syria have been on the rise recently, especially in the vast expanses of its eastern and northern deserts amid a security vacuum.
The NDF is a pro-government militia that has fought alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s army since the outbreak of the deadly Syrian civil war over a decade ago.
ISIS rose to power and seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land amid a brazen offensive in 2014, declaring a so-called “caliphate”.
While the group was declared territorially defeated in 2019, it still continues to pose serious security risks through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions, especially across the vast Syrian desert as well as several Iraqi provinces.
On Monday, three Syrian army soldiers were killed in an ambush by ISIS gunmen in the central province of Homs.
Two days prior, five members of a pro-Syrian regime militia were killed in another ISIS attack in Homs.