At least nine Syrian soldiers killed in militant attack in Badia

AMMAN (Reuters) - At least nine Syrian army soldiers were killed on Sunday in an ambush on their bus on a main highway in the central Syrian desert in the second such incident in less than a week by suspected Islamic State militants, residents and defectors said.

Syrian state media earlier said six people, without identifying them as soldiers, were killed near Wadi al Azeeb in the western part of the Syrian desert known as the Badia, east of the city of Hama, when their bus was targeted while on the road.