The country's state news agency SANA also reported on Saturday that a suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt while government soldiers were raiding a "terrorist" hideout in the northeastern countryside of Daraa.

The explosion injured a number of soldiers, said the report.

As the birthplace of the Syrian war that erupted in 2011, Daraa is both symbolically and militarily significant for the Syrian army, which won a big victory by recapturing the province from the rebels in 2018.