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Syria Regime Forces Kick off Campaign against ISIS after Deadly Ambush

Illustrative: Syrian engineering troops check for mines in the M5 highway in Aleppo, Syria, February 15, 2020. (SANA via AP)
Illustrative: Syrian engineering troops check for mines in the M5 highway in Aleppo, Syria, February 15, 2020. (SANA via AP)
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Syria Regime Forces Kick off Campaign against ISIS after Deadly Ambush

Illustrative: Syrian engineering troops check for mines in the M5 highway in Aleppo, Syria, February 15, 2020. (SANA via AP)
Illustrative: Syrian engineering troops check for mines in the M5 highway in Aleppo, Syria, February 15, 2020. (SANA via AP)

Syrian regime forces, with Russian support, kicked off a wide operation in the vast Badia (desert) in retaliation to the rising number of attacks launched by ISIS remnants in the area.

The latest attack took place in Deir Ezzor on Wednesday when ISIS ambushed a bus carrying soldiers and pro-government militias who had finished their leave and were on their way back to their base in the desolate, sparsely populated area.

Some 40 soldiers, mostly from the army’s Fourth Brigade, were killed and six others were badly wounded.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the regime, backed by the National Defense Forces and Palestinian Jerusalem Brigade militias, launched its campaign on Friday with Russian air cover.

Russian aircraft carried out dozens of strikes against ISIS positions in the region that stretches from Hama, Aleppo and al-Raqqa.

The Observatory revealed that ISIS had killed 819 regime members and allied militants throughout 2020, in ambushes, attacks and fighting. The terror group lost 507 members in these clashes and in Russian and regime air raids.

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PKK Would Leave Syria if Kurdish Forces Keep Leadership Role, Official Says

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters are pictured in Sinjar, northwest Iraq, on March 11, 2015. Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters are pictured in Sinjar, northwest Iraq, on March 11, 2015. Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
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PKK Would Leave Syria if Kurdish Forces Keep Leadership Role, Official Says

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters are pictured in Sinjar, northwest Iraq, on March 11, 2015. Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters are pictured in Sinjar, northwest Iraq, on March 11, 2015. Asmaa Waguih/Reuters

An official with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said on Thursday the militant group would agree to leave northeastern Syria if the US-allied Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) maintains a significant joint leadership role there.
"Any initiative resulting in the governance of northeastern Syria under the control of the SDF, or in which they have a significant role in joint leadership, will lead us to agree to leave the region," the official at the group's political office in northern Iraq said.
The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Türkiye, the United States and Europe. It has fought a separatist insurgency against the Turkish state for 40 years and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
After the ousting of president Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus last month, Ankara has threatened to crush the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which is a part of the SDF that it says is an extension of the PKK.
Ankara has said the SDF must be disbanded and all senior PKK members ousted from Syria or it will strike, prompting negotiations over the future of the SDF, which is the main US ally in the fight against ISIS in northeastern Syria.
Washington has called for a "managed transition" for its Kurdish allies and the SDF commander has said any PKK members would leave Syria if Türkiye agrees a ceasefire.
In a written statement, the PKK official said that if the group leaves Syria it would continue monitoring from afar and will act against Turkish forces or moves as needed.
"The future of Syria will be determined after the 20th of this month, once Trump assumes power," the official said, referring to US President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday.