Thirteen Syrian soldiers and two civilians killed in Raqqa bus attack

Death toll likely to rise as some of the injured are in a critical condition

Syrian Democratic Forces fighters stand guard at Al Naeem Square, in the northern city of Raqqa. AP

An attack on a bus on the outskirts of Raqqa city in northern Syria on Monday has killed at least 13 government troops and two civilians, Syrian state media said.

The incident took place at 6.30am on a motorway leading to the central city of Homs, the official Sana news agency reported.

A military bus was the target of the attack, said the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. It reported a different death toll, saying at least 15 government troops were killed.

The UK-based observatory, which has been monitoring the war in Syria since 2011, said the death toll is likely to increase as some troops were critically injured in the attack.

No organisation immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which the government called a “terrorist bombing”.

Extremists linked to ISIS and Al Qaeda have often staged deadly attacks, including suicide bombings, in the past few years in Syrian cities, including the capital Damascus.

In 2017, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by a US-led military coalition, ousted ISIS from Raqqa, which was the group's Syrian stronghold.

Earlier this month, the SDF said they were ready to co-ordinate with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's forces in case of a new incursion into northern Syria by Turkey, which seeks to keep Syrian Kurdish forces away from its border.

In recent years, several blasts targeted military buses carrying Syrian soldiers in the capital Damascus. In most of the attacks, explosive charges were attached to the buses before they departed.

After 11 years of civil war, Mr Al Assad has managed to defeat various opposition factions and recapture vast swathes of Syria.

Several Arab countries have also restored diplomatic ties with Damascus. Others still pursue a wait-and-see strategy.

The civil war has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced half of Syria’s pre-war population of more than 22 million people, whether as refugees or internally, and drawn several foreign countries into a multi-sided conflict that involves today many countries including Iran, Russia, the US and Turkey.

Syria’s economy has been heavily battered by the war and related sanctions imposed by the US and the EU, which have kept many foreign investors away.