Armed police patrol at the Central railway station because of a possible terror attack by jihadits returning from Syria
AFP
Jihadists from the Islamic State group killed at least 50 Syrian soldiers in an ambush on Friday, summarily executing most of them after their capture, a monitoring group said.
The assault in Raqa province, the jihadists' Euphrates valley stronghold, came amid their fiercest assault yet on Damascus-held territory.
The deaths added to 74 already killed in the offensive across the north and northeast, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"At least 50 soldiers were ambushed, some of them were killed in fighting but most of them were beheaded," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
IS militants claimed the toll was as high as 75.
"Allah be praised, 75 soldiers of the 17th division were captured at Abu Shared and they were beheaded," one sympathiser tweeted.
Media close to the regime remained silent on the deaths in Raqa.
The 17th division is one of three still holding positions in the IS-occupied region and operates out of a vast military base.
