Baghdad: Thirty-five people were killed and 30 others injured in a collision between a bus carrying members of the Internal Security Forces and a civilian vehicle on the Deir ez-Zor-Damascus highway in the area between al-Sukhnah and Palmyra in the Homs desert.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, Dr. Najib al-Naasan, Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services at the Syrian Ministry of Health, stated that the death toll is not final. Emergency teams managed to extinguish a fire that broke out at the accident site.

The Ministry of Defense deployed helicopters to assist in evacuating the victims and the injured to the Homs Military Hospital, while ambulance teams transported the injured to hospitals in Palmyra and Deir ez-Zor. Health personnel in Deir ez-Zor were mobilized to receive the injured.