ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least 35 people killed on Saturday when a military bus and a civilian bus collided on a highway in central Syria, health authorities said.
State media cited Najeeb Al-Naasan, a senior health official, as saying 35 people lost their lives and 30 others were injured in the incident.
“Emergency teams and competent authorities rushed to the scene of the accident, where the injured are being transferred and the victims are being evacuated,” the Syrian interior ministry said, as cited by state media.
The crash took place on the highway linking Deir ez-Zor and Damascus.
Footage obtained by Rudaw showed bodies lying on the ground and one of the buses engulfed in flames. A child was seen crying as he appeared to search for his parents.
Damascus’s interior ministry expressed “deep sorrow and sadness” over the accident.
Road safety on Syria’s main highways has deteriorated sharply since the fall of the Assad government, with crumbling infrastructure, aging vehicle fleets and lax enforcement compounding the risks on long desert corridors. The Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, recorded more than 600 traffic accidents in the first quarter of 2025 alone, killing 39 people and injuring 567. By mid-April, the toll had climbed to 726 accidents, 46 deaths and 667 injuries.
Densely populated areas and major transport arteries - particularly the Damascus–Homs–Deir ez-Zor corridor - have accounted for the majority of severe multi-vehicle collisions.
