BEIRUT: The Daesh group has claimed responsibility for two attacks in southern Syria, including one on government forces that an opposition war monitor described as the first on the Syrian army to be adopted by the extremists since the fall of Bashar Assad.

In two separate statements issued late Thursday, Daesh said that in the first attack, a bomb was detonated targeting a “vehicle of the apostate regime,” leaving seven soldiers dead or wounded. It said the attack occurred “last Thursday,” or May 22, in the Al-Safa area in the desert of the southern province of Sweida.

Daesh said that the second attack occurred this week in a nearby area during which a bomb targeted members of the US-backed Free Syrian Army, claiming that it killed one fighter and wounded three.

There was no comment from the government on the claim of the attack and a spokesperson for the Free Syrian Army didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the attack on government forces killed one civilian and wounded three soldiers, describing it as the first such attack to be claimed by Daesh against Syrian forces since the fall of the 54-year Assad family’s rule in December.

Daesh, which once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq, is opposed to the new authority in Damascus led by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who was once the head of Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria and fought battles against Daesh.

Over the past several months, Daesh has claimed responsibility for attacks against the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast.

Daesh was defeated in Syria in March 2019 when SDF fighters captured the last sliver of land that the extremists controlled. Since then, its sleeper cells have carried out deadly attacks, mainly in eastern and northeast Syria.

In January, state media reported that intelligence officials in Syria’s post-Assad government thwarted a plan by Daesh to set off a bomb at a Shiite Muslim shrine south of Damascus.

Al-Sharaa met with US President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia earlier this month during which the American leader said that Washington would work on lifting crippling economic sanctions imposed on Damascus since the days of Assad.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement after the meeting that Trump urged Al-Sharaa to diplomatically recognize Israel, “tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria” and help the US stop any resurgence of the Daesh group.

SINGAPORE: France could harden its position on Israel if it continues to block humanitarian aid to Gaza, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, reiterating that Paris was committed to a two-state solution to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

“The humanitarian blockade is creating a situation that is untenable on the ground,” Macron said at a joint press conference in Singapore with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

“And so, if there is no response that meets the humanitarian situation in the coming hours and days, obviously, we will have to toughen our collective position,” Macron said, adding that France may consider applying sanctions against Israeli settlers.

“But I still hope that the government of Israel will change its stance and that we will finally have a humanitarian response.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has hit back at growing international pressure over the war in Gaza, the deadliest fighting in decades of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Macron was in Singapore on a state visit and he will also deliver the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier security forum, which runs this year from May 30-June 1.

Deep differences between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March.

Under growing international pressure, Israel partially ended an 11-week long aid blockade on Gaza 10 days ago. It has allowed a limited amount of relief to be delivered via two avenues — the United Nations or the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The French president said Paris is commaitted to working toward a political solution and reiterated his support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Macron is leaning toward recognizing a Palestinian state, diplomats and experts say, a move that could infuriate Israel and deepen Western splits.

French officials are weighing up the move ahead of a United Nations conference, which France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting between June 17-20, to lay out the parameters for a roadmap to a Palestinian state, while ensuring Israel’s security.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to a Hamas attack in its south on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 Israelis taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

The war since then has killed around 54,000 Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities say, more than in any other of the countless rounds of fighting between the two sides.