The sun had barely set on Sunday, May 18, when an explosion shattered the tranquility of the Euphrates' banks. In front of the police station in the small town of Mayadin, located about 400 kilometers east of Damascus in the Deir Ezzor province, a car bomb exploded, killing three police officers from the Syrian Interior Ministry's general security and injuring several people, according to the SANA news agency. A civilian was also killed, according to Syrian television. Videos shared on social media showed a Syrian security forces vehicle engulfed in flames and a crater left in the charred ground at the explosion site.

For now, the attack has not been claimed. No statement has been made by the Syrian government, which administers this region at the edge of its territory. Many experts see the mark of the Islamic State group (IS), which already claimed two attacks near Mayadin on May 6 and May 18 against soldiers of the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The town – a strategic hub linking the Badiya desert and the Mesopotamian plains and not far from the Iraqi border, where security forces' presence remains limited – is extremely marginalized, as Le Monde observed in late April.

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