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Syria: Attack kills 10 oil workers near Deir Ezzor

Explosion on bus transporting workers in the Al-Kharrata oil field in eastern Syria
US forces patrol near the Rumaylan oil fields in Syria's Kurdish-controlled northeastern Hasakah province, 1 November 2021 (AFP)

Ten Syrians were killed and at least one wounded in an attack on an oil field near Deir Ezzor, a city on the Euphrates river to the east of the country.

According to activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) an explosive device targeted a bus transporting workers in Al-Kharrata oil field, roughly 20km southwest of Deir Ezzor.

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Syria's state news agency, SANA, has also confirmed the casualty numbers.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but SOHR said that members of the Islamic State (IS) group have recently been active in the region.

Syrian government forces recaptured the Al-Kharrata oil field in September 2017 following brutal battles with IS.

In November, SOHR said that 13 fighters from a pro-government militia were killed in an ambush by IS in Deir Ezzor province.

In a separate incident on Thursday, several Syrians were wounded on the outskirts of Maan, near the city of Hama, when a landmine left by militants exploded.

Earlier this week, the US Defence Department ordered an investigation into a 2019 air strike in Syria that killed dozens of women and children in IS's last stronghold, Baghouz, and which was initially covered up by the Pentagon.

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