The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continues to grow tonight, with the latest reports that they overran the towns of Muhassan, al-Bulil, and Al-Buomar in the Deir Ezzor Province, a cluster of towns along the Euphrates River.
Muhassan is seen as a particularly strategically valuable town, as it is just a stone’s throw away from the city of Mayadin, and the Syrian military’s main eastern airport.
If ISIS manages to take Mayadin, they will effectively control every major city in Deir Ezzor, a major oil-producing province that borders the ISIS-controlled Anbar Province of Iraq.
Some portions of other Deir Ezzor cities, including al-Bukamal, have been contested off and on between ISIS and rival al-Qaeda faction Jabhat al-Nusra, though ISIS seems to be getting the better of most such confrontations, and seem to be moving ever closer to de facto statehood.
Someone might want to point this out to Sen. Levin.
Soon we will be shipping chemical weapons back to Assad.
Interesting to note that thus far the ISIS controlled areas in both Syria and Iraq are low productivity, low population desert areas. There is some agriculture and oil production, but not much. The West Texas of that part of the world. Once the looting has been spent, absent outside subsidy ISIS will have a hard time controlling the population, which may have both fear and high expectations.
ISIS will itself become very vulnerable to its own terror tactics. Bombings, sabotage, hit and run and even formal military attack of fixed defenses or key command and control centers in larger cities.
The Sunni populations will quickly grow restive and probably very hungry. Sharia justice will also create many bitter enemies from aggrieved families of such barbarism. There are also some Shi'ites there who will become highly motivated to strike back at their new bosses.
ISIS seems to be unaware of that old but true maxim: be very wary of getting what you want…