Liwa al-Quds has mourned the loss of 22 of its members following the targeting of a military bus by a guided missile in the rural areas of Homs.

Local Syrian media outlets reported today, Friday, April 19, that the military bus was ambushed between the areas of al-Kom and al-Taybah in the eastern countryside of Homs.

The local radio station “Sham FM” reported, citing unnamed security sources, that the ambush occurred during a shift change among the monitoring units near the municipality of al-Taybah in the al-Sukhna area to the north-east of Palmyra, which was followed by clashes that lasted about an hour.

According to Sham FM, the Islamic State organization was behind the attack, but the group has not claimed responsibility for the operation at the time of writing this news.

The sources added to Sham FM radio that during the clashes, the militants used rocket-propelled grenades to target the buses transporting members of the Liwa al-Quds forces.

The Syrian government, the Ministry of Defense, as well as the official state media, have not commented on the news of the targeting at the time of writing this news.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the death toll during military operations within the Syrian desert has reached 329 people since the beginning of the year 2024.

Liwa al-Quds

With the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011, Muhammad Ahmad al-Saeed, born in the Palestinian displacement camps, specifically the al-Nairab camp in Aleppo, and originally an engineer working in the contracting and construction sector, was entrusted with the task of funding groups from the camps’ sons to work in favor of the regime, due to his profession which allowed him to weave a network of relations with regime officials, especially with the Air Force Intelligence branch in the northern region.

These groups were active in suppressing demonstrations near the camp, and demonstrations that started from Aleppo University and its surroundings, in addition to carrying out random arrest campaigns in Aleppo which affected dozens of university students.

As the regime needed more elements, it began arming a large number of sons of the al-Nairab camp and gave them security cards affiliated with Air Force Intelligence. Al-Saeed then announced the establishment of Liwa al-Quds (Jerusalem Brigade) in October 2013, backed by the Air Force Intelligence branch in the northern region, which encouraged wide recruitment operations among the Palestinians.

After the positioning of Iranian militias near the al-Nairab airport, the brigade began to receive its financial and logistical support from Iran’s Quds Force, and in recent years, the brigade has begun receiving support from Russia.

Liwa al-Quds is accused of committing crimes and violations against Syrians, under the supervision of its leader Muhammad al-Saeed, as well as being involved in carrying out kidnapping operations, demanding ransom, murder, torture, and displacement.