![Members of the Syrian security forces stand guard atop a military vehicle at the border-crossing between Albu Kamal in Syria and al-Qaim in Iraq, taken from the Syrian side in the eastern region of Deir Ezzor, on September 30th, 2019. [AFP]](/cnmi_di/images/2020/05/19/24135-Syria-Iraq-border-700_496.webp)
"Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) gunmen executed 11 people, all but one of them pro-regime fighters, in two attacks on a desert highway in eastern Syria, a war monitor said Monday (May 18th).
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bodies of seven members of a pro-regime militia were found at dawn on the highway linking Deir Ezzor to Damascus.
On Sunday, a Syrian army officer, two other soldiers and a woman were shot dead, also execution-style, on another stretch of the highway, and their vehicle was seized, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility from ISIS on the Telegram messaging service it uses to issue statements.
Since its territorial defeat in Syria in March 2019, ISIS attacks have been restricted to the vast deserts stretching from Deir Ezzor to Homs in the centre of the country.
Eleven government soldiers were killed in a May 7th ambush, which the Observatory said was the work of ISIS extremists.
