Russia attacks Islamic State strongholds in Syria when insurgency gains ground

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the evolution of the war in Syria, said 26 members of the Islamic State were killed in Russian airstrikes in Palmyra and other areas of the central Syrian desert in recent days. .

The Islamic State in 2015 captured the ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra and destroyed a number of Roman temples, tombs and other objects. With the support of Russian airstrikes, the Syrian government recaptured the ruins in 2016.

The airstrikes came after the Islamic State claimed to have killed two Russian soldiers who tried to land in a helicopter in Homs province, Syria.

From hiding in the desert to central and eastern Syria, Islamic State militants over the past year have expanded their reach, hitting major highways across the country, attacking convoys of oil, killing commanders Syrian military and killing a major Russian general in a roadside bombing. in April 2020.

Although they no longer control significant territory two years after losing the self-proclaimed caliphate, militants are accelerating the pace of their attacks, leaving Assad to fight an insurgency in parts of the country he nominally rules.

“It can be contained but it cannot be destroyed,” said Robert Ford, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria, referring to the Islamic State.

Rising violence poses problems in Russia and Iran. The two foreign powers helped President Bashar al-Assad reclaim much of the country and are critical of efforts to regain government control in remote parts of central and eastern Syria.

Meanwhile, factions backed by Iran are fortifying bases in the desert on the Syrian-Iraqi border to try to curb Islamic State attacks and ensure their influence in the region. The bases have so far proved ineffective, says Manhal Bareesh, a Syrian researcher, as the Islamic State is capable of attacking factions backed by Iran even within the relative security of major cities.

The insurgency also puts pressure on the Biden administration, as it considers the future of the U.S. presence in Syria, which includes hundreds of U.S. troops working with local militias to fight the Islamic State in a section of the US military. east of Syria north of the Euphrates River.

US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces operations have expelled groups of fighters and commanders from the Islamic State in northeastern Syria, only to get militants to take refuge in government territory south of the Euphrates. .

After the Islamic State captured a wide swath of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014, its territorial empire collapsed under an assault by Iraqi and Syrian forces backed by thousands of U.S. airstrikes and a parallel military effort organized by Iran. In 2019, the extremist group lost its last territorial position in northeastern Syria.

Counterterrorism officials and experts hoped the group would return to its former status as a grassroots militant organization formed during the insurgency against the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The intensity of the resurgence of the group has surprised many of those who have followed the evolution of the group.

In 2020, the Islamic State carried out at least 286 attacks in Syria, more than double the previous year, and killed at least 432 pro-government fighters and 41 civilians, according to a detailed count of attacks by Gregory Waters, an investigator. the Middle East Institute and a specialist in the Syrian insurgency of extremists. Since January 2021, the group’s attacks have killed at least 189 people, including civilians, according to Mr Waters.

Operations by Syrian and Russian forces to retake militant strongholds have collapsed against more formidable opposition. Last year, in an operation, Syrian government troops and Russian military contractors tried to remove the Islamic State from an oasis in central Syria after a series of attacks on a nearby city. Overwhelmed by Islamic State fighters in the area, pro-government forces were forced to withdraw, according to Syrian monitors and Mr Waters.

Islamic State attacks on oil installations and convoys carrying oil have sparked widespread discontent with the Damascus regime. Assad and his allies have not provided adequate services to areas they have reclaimed from the Islamic State, according to Saddam al-Jassir, a researcher in eastern Syria.

“Daesh is an idea,” he said, using the Arabic acronym Islamic State. “It never disappeared and it’s still there because there was no idea to replace it.”

Write to Jared Malsin to [email protected]