IS landmine kills seven Syrian government forces: monitor

Seven members of Syria's security forces were killed Wednesday when their bus struck an Islamic State group landmine in the Badia desert, in the centre of the country, a monitor said.

"Seven regime forces were killed and 10 others were injured," said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

IS jihadists had planted the landmine near the central city of Palmyra and it blew up when a Syrian army bus drove over it, said the Observatory, which has a network of sources on the ground in Syria.

The jihadist group seized control of large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, setting up a "caliphate" and launching a reign of terror.

Iraq declared "victory" over the Sunni Muslim extremist group at the end of 2017, and IS was defeated territorially in Syria two years later.

But jihadist cells continue to carry out hit-and-run attacks in the vast Badia desert which runs from the outskirts of the capital Damascus to the Iraqi border.

The conflict in Syria, sparked in 2011 by anti-government protests, has left more than half a million dead and displaced millions after spiralling into a war involving foreign armies, militias and jihadists.