A week of fighting in the deserts of eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor has seen at least 48 Syrian soldiers killed, and another 22 ISIS fighters. This is the most major fight in months for Syria’s military and ISIS, as the Islamist group has set up in the desert.
The death toll is likely worse, as the Syrian troops went into the area looking for other pro-government forces that they’d lost contact with, and were ambushed in that area. That leaves another 50 Syrian forces unaccounted for and missing.
Having once controlled half the country, ISIS has lost pretty much everything but empty desert, but they still have a lot of fighters loyal to them in those areas. Their ability to infiltrate and attack cities is all but gone, but this week has shown they remain a capable fighting force if given the opportunity.
ISIS casualties were mostly the result of Russian airstrikes in the area. Syrian ground troops appear to have been outmatched, which may reflect the ambush they ended up involved in, and ISIS’s familiarity with the terrain.
Since ISIS isn’t a sovereign combatant, rules covering the use of NBC weapons against them don’t apply.
Russia. . .two days. . .phosgene gas.
It will get far more interesting when the good ISIS who we hired to get Assad actually storm his palace and behead him. It is the price you pay for gassing your own people that oppose you.
Can anyone with straight face say that ISIS is living in desert?
We heard this stupid assertion the moment ISIS collapsed in Raqqa and Mosul.
There is no such thing as living in desert! What is needed is identify the FUNDING SOURCE, the shelter location and shelter provider, the supplier of weapons, transit vehicles, food, salaries for each fighter.
Also, clearly SOMEBODY is providing them with intelligence. There is otherwise no way such presumably desert dwellers would be capable of ambushing military units.
This reminds me of early days when ISIS used to ambush Iraqi army — and it was all written of to Army incompetence. But as soon as Iraq set up a joint intelligence sharing group in Baghdad that included Iran and Russia, such ambushes ended, the result being defeat of ISIS in Iraq by Iraqi boots on the ground.
The problem here is — Jordan will not share information, even though such groups must hide either in Jordan, or around Tanf US military base.
They are FOR SURE not living in the desert. They have no tax base to raise income, no currency of their own — but always plenty of money. They have no weapons factory to produce or repair weapons, no gas stations to fill up tanks.
Once we STOP talking rubbish — we can answer basic question: who is responsible for supporting terrorists?