ISIS Conducts New Attack on Army Positions in Central Syria

Local reports say at least 30 Syrian army personnel were killed during an ISIS attack on 8 November after gunmen opened fire on the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and allies in the National Defense Force in the Homs-Hama-Raqqa triangle. 

“Several militants attacked at dawn today, Wednesday, simultaneously, points of the Syrian army and the auxiliary forces on the area of Al-Koum and the Taybeya Sukhna axis in the eastern desert of Homs, which led to the death of 21 elements and the injury of 9 others, with the killing and injury of several attacking militants,” local sources told Al-Mayadeen. 

The attack on the Syrian soldiers happened within a 55km distance from a US occupation base in central Syria, which the source claims is part of a plan to be turned “into centers to support terrorism and provide military and intelligence support.”

“The US occupation is trying to avenge the legitimate attacks of the resistance by facilitating attacks by ISIS terrorists on areas controlled by the army and allied forces in the desert […] military reinforcements were sent to comb the area that was attacked and to pursue and eliminate the terrorists who carried out the attack.”

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says this morning’s attack raised the death toll in military operations to 514.

ISIS has become more active this year, with The Cradle’s Mohammed Alloush claiming that the group is resurgent. 

“A key catalyst has been the reduction in international military operations against the organization, largely driven by the global preoccupation with the conflict in Ukraine,” Alloush wrote. “This shift in focus diverted attention and resources away from countering ISIS, allowing the group to exploit the resulting security vacuum.”

Over the past several months, the SAA – with Russian air support – launched new ground operations that seeks to take out these remaining ISIS cells hidden in the Syrian desert.

Weeks following the start of this operation, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said that US forces illegally occupying oil fields in Syria’s northeast will remain there for the foreseeable future to “fight ISIS.”