Syrian and allied forces have seen an “exceptional” level of activity among Daesh* (ISIS) cells operating in the country’s desert areas, with reconnaissance flights pinpointing efforts by fighters to move between the Ithriya Desert east of Hama to the Resafa Desert south of Raqqa and through the eastern countryside of Homs, a high ranking field source has told Sputnik Arabic.
According to the source, these activities prompted Russian jets to carry out 18 air raids, with strikes destroying four of jihadist headquarters and five 4x4 vehicles, with 40 militants killed or injured.
The source accused US forces at the Al-Tanf garrison of providing “great support” for the fighters in the form of logistics and supplies assistance.
US troops have occupied Al-Tanf, situated on Syria’s southern border with Iraq and Jordan since 2016.
“In the past three weeks, through pre-emptive strikes on sites and supply routes used by Daesh in the Syrian Desert, Russian warplanes have thwarted a series of movements by Daesh as militants attempted raids on commercial convoys along the [Homs-Deir ez-Zor] highway and affiliated sites”, the source said.
The source also indicated that Syrian ground units were moving through the desert in search of Daesh fighters, and said that “these combing operations are continuing to remove the threat of the organisation from these vital areas”.
The Russian Defence Ministry has not provided any official commentaries on the matter.
Sputnik Arabic’s report is the second time this month that Syrian authorities have told media about suspected US support for Islamist extremists. On 10 April, sources told the Syrian Arab News Agency that US instructors were training Daesh inmates at a prison at a military base in the town of al-Shaddadi, Hasakah on how to use rocket propelled grenades and shoulder-fired missiles. The agency’s sources said at least 10 militants had been trained, and that the militants were to be transferred to desert areas in Deir ez-Zor and outside Palmyra to attack Syrian Army outposts, critical infrastructure, and civilian gatherings.
Syrian media also suspect that US forces may have transferred “hundreds” of Daesh fighters held prisons in Iraq and Syrian Kurdish-controlled Hasakah to al-Tanf for training purposes.
In addition to threats from terrorists, Syria continues to face pressure from its neighbours, including Israel, which has carried out a years-long campaign of air and missile strikes targeting suspected "Iranian" or "Iranian-backed" forces, and Turkey, which continues to occupy wide swathes of the Arab Republic’s territory in the country’s north. The US and its local Kurdish allies occupy 1/3 of Syria containing about 90 percent of the country’s oil and gas resources, as well as its breadbasket, threatening to literally starve Syria into submission were it not for Russian and Iranian grain and oil deliveries.
* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.