Daesh terrorist attack kills 17, wounds 40 in Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr

Foreign-backed militants gather along a road in Syria’s eastern city of Dayr al-Zawr. (Photos by AFP)

At least 17 people have been killed and 40 more wounded in a Daesh terrorist attack on Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Monday, three children were among those killed in the mortar attack which targeted the town of al-Joura in the province.

"The shelling hit just before families were gathering to break the Ramadan fast," said the UK-based monitoring group’s director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Local sources said that at least six shells fell on the city during the attack which also wounded at least 40 people.

"Some of them are in critical condition, but the health situation in the neighborhood is deteriorating because of the lack of staff, medicine, and medical equipment," added a local activist.

Syria retakes control of Damascus district

Meanwhile, the Syrian capital’s governor has announced that the district of Barzeh has been returned to the control of the government after militant’s there agreed to leave in accordance with an evacuation deal.

According to the Observatory, the last bus load of militants left the area on Monday. The convoy was headed for the northwestern province of Idlib.

Syrian militants have their names checked at a checkpoint manned by government forces ahead of their evacuation from the Waer neighborhood, in the central city of Homs, on May 21, 2017.

It added that around 450 militants along with their families were permitted to leave the city.

Syria has been fighting different foreign-sponsored militant groups since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated last August that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the crisis until then.