At least three people have been killed in a blast targeting a police station in the eastern Syrian town of Al-Mayadeen, the SANA state news agency has reported, citing a security source.
The explosion in the Deir az Zor countryside on Sunday also injured several people, the report said, without providing further details.
A video verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit Sanad shows the aftermath of the explosion.
The incident took place a day after Syrian authorities said security forces killed three ISIL (ISIS) fighters and arrested four others in Aleppo. It was the first time the interim government announced such an operation against the armed group.
The raids, launched by the General Security Department in coordination with the General Intelligence Directorate, targeted multiple ISIL sleeper cells operating across Aleppo, Syria’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Saturday. One security officer was killed in the operation, it said.
Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who assumed power in Damascus in December, has long opposed ISIL. His forces battled the group’s self-declared caliphate during the Syrian war.
Al-Sharaa seized power after his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham armed group led a lightning opposition offensive that toppled Syria’s longtime President Bashar al-Assad. Al-Sharaa cut ties with al-Qaeda in 2016.
The recent operation comes just months after Syrian authorities said they had foiled an ISIL bombing plot near the Sayeda Zeinab shrine, a key pilgrimage site for Shia Muslims south of Damascus.
This also comes after US President Donald Trump stunned the world by announcing on Tuesday that the United States was going to lift sanctions on the country – a move that Syrians hope will help their nation reintegrate into the global economy, and bring much-needed investment.
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