(Al Jazeera Media Network) ISIL (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for an attack on the Syrian army, representing the armed group’s first strike at government forces since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, according to analysts.
In a statement released late on Thursday, ISIL said its fighters had planted an explosive device that struck a “vehicle of the apostate regime” in southern Syria.
The bombing appears to mark an escalation by ISIL, which views the new government in Damascus as illegitimate but has so far concentrated its activities against Kurdish forces in the north.
The blast, in the al-Safa desert region of Sweida province on May 22, reportedly killed or wounded seven Syrian soldiers.
A second bomb attack, claimed by ISIL earlier this week, targeted fighters from the United States-backed Kurdish-led Free Syrian Army in a nearby area. ISIL said one fighter was killed and three injured.
There has been no official comment from the Syrian government, and the Free Syrian Army has yet to respond.
Members of the new Syrian government that replaced al-Assad after his removal in December once had ties to al-Qaeda – a rival of ISIL – but broke with the group nearly a decade ago.
However, over the past several months, ISIL has claimed responsibility only for attacks against the Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast.
The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the convoy blast was the first ISIL-claimed operation targeting the new Syrian military.
ISIL was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019 but maintains sleeper cells, particularly in the country’s central and eastern deserts.
While the group’s capacity has been diminished, the latest attacks suggest it may be seeking to reassert itself amid shifting alliances and weakening state control.
