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ISIS Retakes Nearly Half of Syria’s Albu Kamal

People inspect damaged areas in Deir Ezzor on March 3, 2013. Reuters Photo
People inspect damaged areas in Deir Ezzor on March 3, 2013. Reuters Photo
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ISIS Retakes Nearly Half of Syria’s Albu Kamal

People inspect damaged areas in Deir Ezzor on March 3, 2013. Reuters Photo
People inspect damaged areas in Deir Ezzor on March 3, 2013. Reuters Photo

ISIS militants have retaken nearly half of Albu Kamal in eastern Syria in a counter-attack on what had been the last significant town under their full control, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday.

"ISIS started counter-attacking on Thursday night and retook more than 40 percent of the town of Albu Kamal," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based monitor, told Agence France Presse.

Syrian regime forces and allied fighters, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, had recaptured the town, which lies on the border with Iraq in the eastern Deir Ezzor province, from the militants on Thursday.

Albu Kamal lies at the heart of what used to be the sprawling "caliphate" the extremist organization declared in 2014 over swathes of Iraq and Syria.

"The militants went back in and retook several neighborhoods in the north, northeast and northwest," Abdel Rahman said. "ISIS is trying to defend its last bastion."

Meanwhile, the US-led coalition told Reuters on Friday that it does not have "any releasable information concerning the whereabouts" of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

A military media unit run by Hezbollah said on Friday that Baghdadi was reported present in Albu Kamal during the operation to clear it.

The military unit did not say what had happened to Baghdadi, give further details or identify its sources.

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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)

Italy plans to send an ambassador back to Syria after a decade-long absence, the country’s foreign minister said, in a diplomatic move that could spark divisions among European Union allies.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking in front of relevant parliamentary committees Thursday, announced Rome’s intention to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria to prevent Russia from monopolizing diplomatic efforts in the Middle Eastern country.

Moscow is considered a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has remained in power despite widespread Western isolation and civilian casualties since the start of Syria’s civil war in March 2011.

Peaceful protests against the Assad government — part of the so-called “Arab Spring” popular uprisings that spread across some of the Middle East — were met by a brutal crackdown, and the uprising quickly spiraled into a full-blown civil war.

The conflict was further complicated by the intervention of foreign forces on all sides and a rising militancy, first by al-Qaida-linked groups and then the ISIS group until its defeat on the battlefield in 2019.

The war, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, is now largely frozen, despite ongoing low-level fighting.

The country is effectively carved up into areas controlled by the Damascus-based government of Assad, various opposition groups and Syrian Kurdish forces.

In the early days of the conflict, many Western and Arab countries cut off relations with Syria, including Italy, which has since managed Syria-related diplomacy through its embassy in Beirut.

However, since Assad has regained control over most of the territory, neighboring Arab countries have gradually restored relations, with the most symbolically significant move coming last year when Syria was re-admitted to the Arab League.

Tajani said Thursday the EU’s policy in Syria should be adapted to the “development of the situation,” adding that Italy has received support from Austria, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus and Slovakia.

However, the US and allied countries in Europe have largely continued to hold firm in their stance against Assad’s government, due to concerns over human rights violations.