Disregarding combing campaigns and Russian airstrikes | ISIS continues its attacks in the Syrian desert

The frequent campaigns carried out by regime forces in the Syrian desert, which experienced the participation of several military formation and coincided with scores of airstrikes executed by Russian fighter jets on ISIS positions and hideouts, have failed so far to put an end to ISIS activity in the desert.

According to SOHR statistics, ISIS has noticeably escalated its attacks since early August, targeting positions and vehicles of regime forces, leaving heavy human and material losses.

This comes as a part of ISIS’ efforts to prove the “Islamic State” is still alive and kicking, despite the International Coalition’s announcement about the defeat of ISIS in residential areas in Syria in March 2019.

In this context, SOHR documented 30 airstrikes carried out by Russian fighter jets in August, targeting ISIS hideouts in the Syrian desert. The Russian airstrikes coincided with a combing campaign by regime forces, which has failed so far to curb ISIS activity, especially since the airstrikes and combing operation left no fatalities among ISIS since early August.

According to SOHR sources, ISIS carried out nine attacks in the Syrian desert in August, killing 21 members of regime forces and their proxy militias.

Here is a regional distribution of those attacks:

• Deir Ezzor desert: Four operations left seven combatants, including two Iranian-backed militias, dead.

• Homs desert: Four operations left 14 combatants dead.

• Al-Raqqah desert: Four operations left no fatalities.

We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, renew our call to the UN Security Council to refer those war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria to the International Criminal Court so that all the criminals and killers of the Syrian people are brought to justice.

The Syrian Observatory also points out that it had already warned, well before “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” declared itself as a “Caliphate State” in Syria and Iraq, that this organization did intend to work for the Syrian people and serve their interest, but rather ISIS continued to kill innocent Syrians, who had been suffering the brutality of war and violence and became displaced.

Furthermore, the “Islamic State” recruited children in the so-called “cubs of the caliphate”, controlled the wealth and resources of the Syrian people and harnessed them to build a “caliphate”, and traded openly back and forth with one of Syria’s neighbouring countries.