BALADI NEWS
Suspected pro-Iran Shiite militants have slaughtered at least 21 civilians in northeastern Raqqa, local activists said Sunday.
Most of the knife-attack victims were shepherds living in Maadan, a desert area controlled by Shiite militias.
Activists said the gruesome crime was in retaliation to the death of Qassem Soleimani, the former leader Quds Forces and all Shiite militias in Syria, who was killed on Friday in a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad's airport along with top Shiite militants.
Also in eastern Syria, at least 10 pro-Iran militants killed Friday by landmines planted by Daesh (ISIS) on desert road links between Homs and Deir Ezzor province, local news site reported.
Badyia 24 said the landmine attack took place near the town of al-Sukhnah in the eastern countryside of Homs
A series of ambushes by ISIS on regime forces and allied militias in the central province of Homs have been reported in the last few weeks.
All the Shiite militias are working under the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), led by Suleiman Rezaei, nicknamed ‘The Iranian’.
In December, Iran-backed militias have mobilized in the Syrian Desert, known as Badiya, near the historic city of Palmyra, al-Sukhna, the al-Talila area, and the Hail oil field.