New Delhi, July 25 -- DAMASCUS - They were traveling in opposite directions on the same desert highway. One bus carried members of Syria's Internal Security Forces; the other transported civilians along the route connecting Deir az-Zor to the capital. Somewhere between al-Sukhnah and Palmyra on Saturday morning, the two vehicles met in a head-on collision that killed at least 35 people and left 30 others critically wounded, according to Syria's Ministry of Interior.

Emergency crews reached the remote stretch of highway within hours. Ambulances deployed from the nearest provincial centers as helicopters airlifted the most critically injured to Homs Military Hospital, one of the few facilities in Syria's interior equipped to manage mass-ca...