Bus Attack Kills 10 Oil Workers In East Syria: State Media

At least 10 oil field workers were killed Thursday in an attack on their bus in eastern Syria's Deir Ezzor province, state media reported.

"Ten workers at the Al-Kharata oil field were martyred and another was wounded in a terrorist attack on a bus transporting them back from work," the official SANA news agency said, without elaborating.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.

However, the Islamic State group regularly claim operations in the oil-rich province that was once a part of its sprawling proto-state straddling Syria and Iraq.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an explosive device was used in the bus attack in an area of Deir Ezzor where "IS sleeper cells are active."

The Al-Kharata oil field lies 12 miles southwest of Deir Ezzor city, said the Observatory. 

Regime forces recaptured it in 2017 after IS jihadists were expelled from the area, the Observatory said.