At Least Five Syrian Soldiers Killed, 20 Injured After Daesh Attack on Military Vehicle - SANA

On 1 January, Syrian state television reported that a US military base in the northeastern Syrian province of Al-Hasakah had come under mortar fire.

Five soldiers were killed and 20 others wounded in an attack by Daesh* militants on a military transport bus in the area 50 km east of the third station in the Syrian Badia desert, Syrian media reported on Monday.

According to reports, the attack took place on Sunday evening.

Other details haven't been provided.

Daesh have noticeably intensified in the east of Syria in recent months and have carried out several attacks on army checkpoints and military transport convoys, and government troops have suffered losses. In particular, on 13 November, Syrian Army soldiers were killed in the Misrab area of Deir ez-Zor province after being ambushed by terrorists.

The armed confrontation in Syria has been going on since 2011 with Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces fighting different insurgent groups. In late 2017, the Daesh was declared defeated in Syria, pushing forward the issue of the country's restoration, political resolution, and the return of refugees.

Negotiations to resolve the Syrian war have been ongoing in Nur-Sultan since 2017 with the mediation of guarantor-states of the Astana format (after the former name of the Kazakh capital, now called Nur-Sultan).

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia