The terrorist group overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming its “caliphate” and launching a reign of terror BEIRUT: Daesh group terrorists killed nine Syrian soldiers in the war-torn country’s vast Badia desert on Tuesday, a war monitor said. “Nine Syrian soldiers were killed and three wounded” when they had gathered in the east of Hama province in central Syria, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. IS has stepped up attacks in Syria in recent months, particularly in the Badia desert which runs from the outskirts of Damascus to the Iraqi border. On February 2, the Sunni Muslim extremist group killed five members of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, said the Britain-based Observatory. An Daesh attack on January 9 killed at least 14 government soldiers in the east of Homs province, said the monitor, which relies on a network of sources in Syria for its reports. The terrorist group overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming its “caliphate” and launching a reign of terror. It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019 but its remnants continue to carry out deadly hit-and-run attacks and ambushes, particularly from desert hideouts. Syria has been devastated by a civil war triggered in 2011 by the repression of pro-democracy protests and which has resulted in more than half a million deaths.