Syrian rebels target bus carrying women snipers

Syrian rebels target bus carrying women snipers
Islamist fighters bombed a bus carrying pro-regime women commandos in Damascus this week.
1 min read
21 December, 2015
File Photo: Republican Guard snipers in action in eastern Damascus [Getty]
An Islamist opposition group has claimed responsibility for a bomb that injured at least ten women snipers in the capital this weekend.

Damascus-based, Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union, announced on Monday evening that it had carried out an attack on a military bus in Mezzeh, a western Damascus suburb, on Saturday.

"The bomb targeted a bus carrying snipers of the Republican Guard's female commando battalion as it was going from the suburb of Darayya to Qasioun," the group said on its website.

Pro-government media said the bomb exploded when the bus turned onto the Mezzeh highway, close to a state university.

Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union has carried out other attacks against regime forces in the capital.

In March, fighters attacked another military bus on the Mezzeh highway close to the city's largest government military base.

Militants from the group also tried to assasinate the commander of the pro-regime Palestine Liberation Army [PLA] militia, Tariq al-Khadra, in November.

His motorcade was attacked as it passed through downtown Damascus. The group said the attack was in response to  PLA attacks on rebels in Zabadani and Ghouta.

Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union is a union of five other Islamist factions and are tied to a local cleric.

The group boasts around 10,000 fighters and is said to be the largest in the war-torn Ghouta district of Damascus.

The Syrian government and Russia consider Anjad al-Sham to be a "terrorist" group.