ISIS Attack Kills 14 Syrian Regime Forces in Badia Desert

SDF members are seen near a river crossing (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
SDF members are seen near a river crossing (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
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ISIS Attack Kills 14 Syrian Regime Forces in Badia Desert

SDF members are seen near a river crossing (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)
SDF members are seen near a river crossing (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)

At least 14 members of the Syrian government forces were killed in a surprise attack by ISIS on a military bus in central Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced on Tuesday.

The observatory said ISIS militants “launched a brutal attack on a military transport bus in the Tadmor desert in the eastern countryside of Homs,” resulting in the death of “at least 14 members of the government forces” with others sustaining injuries.

This is the second such attack this year. Last week, ISIS killed nine Syrian regime troops and militiamen in an attack on military posts in the eastern desert, according to the British-based monitor.

ISIS often targets positions or buses carrying soldiers or public officials, especially in the vast Syrian desert, where its fighters regrouped after losing their last piece of territory in Syria in March 2019.

Despite strikes launched primary by the US-led international coalition and others launched by Syria’s ally, Moscow, against ISIS leaders, positions and movements, the group’s militants still retain a presence in the vast Badia desert and continue to carry out deadly attacks against Syrian forces and pro-regime fighters in central and eastern Syria, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the east and northeast of the country.

Meanwhile, the SDF on Tuesday reported that three of its members were killed last Saturday in a Turkish drone strike near Ain Issa in the Raqqa governorate, north of Syria.

SDF has published the names of its three fighters. They are Khaled Hassan Al-Shawakh and brothers Imad and Muhammad Ali Rajab Al-Halat.



Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
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Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, Türkiye’s foreign ministry said, without providing further details.

Photographs and footage shared by the ministry showed Fidan and Sharaa, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which led the operation to topple Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, walking ahead of a crowded delegation before posing for photographs.

The two are also seen shaking hands, hugging, and smiling.

On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Türkiye would help Syria's new administration form a state structure and draft a new constitution, adding Fidan would head to Damascus to discuss this new structure, without providing a date.

Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, also visited Damascus on Dec. 12, four days after Assad's fall.

Ankara had for years backed opposition fighters looking to oust Assad and welcomed the end of his family's brutal five-decade rule after a 13-year civil war. Türkiye also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes will start returning home after Assad's fall, and has vowed to help rebuild Syria.

Fidan's visit comes amid fighting in northeast Syria between Türkiye-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast and Ankara regards as a terrorist organization.

Earlier, Türkiye’s defense minister said Ankara believed that Syria's new leadership, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in the northeast.

Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of Syrian territory along the border, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the Kurdish fighters.

The SDF has been on the back foot since Assad's fall, with the threat of advances from Ankara and Türkiye-backed groups as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years, and with Syria's new rulers being friendly to Ankara.