JEDDAH: At least Assad regime 26 soldiers have been killed in an attack by Daesh that targeted a military bus in Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria. It was the deadliest incident so far this year in a new wave of strikes by the terrorists, who lost their last piece of territory in Syria in 2019 but have maintained hideouts in the vast Syrian desert from which to carry out ambushes and hit-and-run attacks. Daesh fighters surrounded the bus in the Mayadeen area of Deir Ezzor in the Badia desert and opened fire, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor in the UK with a network of sources on the ground in Syria. Eleven other soldiers were wounded, with some in critical condition, but troops previously thought to be missing were on other buses that managed to reach safe areas, the Observatory said. Syrian government forces and their allied pro-Iranian armed groups deployed in the area were on high alert on Friday morning. Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said Daesh had “recently been escalating its deadly military attacks ... aiming to cause as many deaths as possible.” By doing so they were trying to show that Daesh “is still active and powerful despite the targeting of its leaders,” he said. Daesh leader Abu Al-Hussein Al-Husseini Al-Qurashi was killed last week in clashes in northwestern Syria.The group said its new leader was Abu Hafs Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi. Daesh lost the last territory it held in Syria in March 2019 to a Kurdish-led counteroffensive backed by a US-led coalition, but militant remnants continue to carry out deadly attacks. Targets have been civilians and Kurdish-led fighters, Assad regime troops and allied pro-Iranian fighters. Daesh fighters have increased their attacks in recent weeks in Syria"s north and northeast. The latest attack was the third this month alone. Ten Syrian soldiers and pro-government fighters were killed in a Daesh attack this week in the former militantstronghold of Raqqa. Last week the terrorists attacked a convoy of oil tankers guarded by the army in the Syrian desert, killing seven people including two civilians. And last month Daesh admitted a rare bombing in Damascus that killed at least six people near the capital’s Sayyida Zeinab mausoleum, Syria’s most visited Shi’ite pilgrimage site.