Islamic State group 'claims first attack on new Syrian government's forces'

The Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, has claimed its first attack on the new Syrian government's forces since longtime president Bashar al Assad was ousted, according to a war monitoring body.

In a statement, ISIS said it had planted a bomb on a "vehicle of the apostate regime" in the desert of the southern province of Sweida on 22 May. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) identified it as the first attack to be claimed by IS against Syrian forces since the 54-year Assad family rule ended last December.

SOHR said the attack on government forces had killed one civilian and wounded three soldiers. Islamic State also claimed a second bomb attack this week in a nearby area, targeting members of the Free Syrian Army, which is backed by the United States.

IS said it had killed one fighter and wounded three. Neither the government nor a spokesperson for the Free Syrian Army were immediately available to comment on the reports.

ISIS opposes the new rule in Damascus led by President Ahmad al Sharaa, who once ran al Qaeda's branch in Syria and fought against Islamic State. In January, state media said intelligence officials in the post-Assad government had thwarted an ISIS plan to detonate a bomb at a Shia Muslim shrine south of Damascus.

ISIS once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq but was largely defeated in Syria in March 2019, when US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters captured the last sliver of land it controlled. But small cells have continued to carry out deadly attacks, and US Central Command estimates around 2,500 ISIS fighters remain at large across Iraq and Syria.

In March, US forces said they had killed ISIS's latest leader in Iraq and Syria, Abu Khadija. Last month, Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford revealed in a documentary that Yazidi women were still enslaved in ISIS detention camps, 10 years after the extremists carried out systematic slaughter and mass abductions on the minority group.

How al Sharaa met Trump Syria's new de facto government took charge after launching a rapid offensive in November, backed by other opposition groups, culminating in the downfall of Assad's regime in December. Donald Trump met al Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al Jolani, during his Middle East tour in Saudi Arabia earlier this month, promising to lift crippling economic sanctions imposed on Damascus since the days of Assad.

The White House said in a statement after the meeting that President Trump had urged President al Sharaa to diplomatically recognise Israel, "tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria" and help the US suppress any resurgence of ISIS..