BEIRUT: The death toll in coordinated Islamic State group suicide bombingsand shootings in southern Syria rose to nearly 250 overnight, more thanhalf of them civilians, a monitor said Thursday.

Wednesday’s attacks hit Sweida, a Druze-majority province mostly held bythe government which had remained relatively insulated from the country’sseven-year civil war.

The death toll climbed steadily throughout the day and into the night, theSyrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said.

“The toll is now 246 people dead, including 135 civilians,” saidObservatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

The others killed were pro-government fighters or residents who had takenup arms to defend their villages.

“The toll keeps rising as civilians who were wounded are dying and peoplewho were unaccounted for are found dead,” Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The onslaught began with a triple suicide bombing in the city of Sweida,which was followed by attacks with guns and explosives on villages to itsnorth and east.

A fourth blast hit the provincial capital later in the day.

IS claimed the assault hours later. At least 45 jihadists died carrying itout, the Observatory said.

It was the worst bloodshed to hit Sweida province since the civil war beganin 2011.

Syrian state media reported deadly attacks on Sweida and surroundingvillages but did not give a specific toll.