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Monitor Reports Strong Return of ISIS to Syria’s Desert Badia

A road sign welcomes people to the town of Deir Ezzor in Syria September 20, 2017. Picture taken September 20, 2017. (Reuters)
A road sign welcomes people to the town of Deir Ezzor in Syria September 20, 2017. Picture taken September 20, 2017. (Reuters)
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Monitor Reports Strong Return of ISIS to Syria’s Desert Badia

A road sign welcomes people to the town of Deir Ezzor in Syria September 20, 2017. Picture taken September 20, 2017. (Reuters)
A road sign welcomes people to the town of Deir Ezzor in Syria September 20, 2017. Picture taken September 20, 2017. (Reuters)

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed that ISIS has made a “strong comeback” to the Syrian desert Badia, saying it has seized control of positions in the Hama region.

Over 30 regime fighters, allied militants and ISIS fighters have been killed.

It said that Russian warplanes continue to fly over the Badia, carrying intense strikes against ISIS positions in the Hama countryside.

The war monitor said ISIS carried out a strong offensive against positions held by the regime and allied militants, making advances in the Al-Shakusiyah and al-Rahjan areas. The regime has struggled to contain the attack even with Russian air cover. The fighter jets carried out over 130 strikes in the past 48 hours.

The Observatory said 19 regime forces and allied militants and 12 ISIS fighters were killed in the fighting. The toll is expected to rise.

It documented the killing of seven members of the regime-backed National Defense militia in clashes with ISIS in the al-Shoula region in western Deir Ezzor during a combing operation by the militia. The toll is also expected to rise.

Since March 2019, the Observatory has documented the killing of at least 1,177 regime soldiers and loyalists of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities, including at least two Russians, and 145 Iranian-backed non-Syrian militiamen.

All were killed in attacks, bombings and ambushes by ISIS, west of the Euphrates River in the deserts of Deir Ezzor, Homs and Al-Suwaida.

Four civilians working in gas fields, 11 shepherds and four other people were killed by ISIS during the same period, while 633 terrorists were killed in various fighting and raids.

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Israel Pounds Southern Lebanon and Beirut Outskirts, Killing Five Medics

Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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Israel Pounds Southern Lebanon and Beirut Outskirts, Killing Five Medics

Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Fire and smoke erupt from a building just after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern Chiyah neighborhood on November 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

Israeli forces pounded southern Lebanon and the outskirts of the capital Beirut on Friday, killing at least five medics, and ground troops clashed with Hezbollah fighters in the south.

Israel has pushed on with its intense military campaign against the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, tempering hopes that efforts by a US envoy will lead to an imminent ceasefire.

US mediator Amos Hochstein said this week in Beirut that a truce was "within our grasp". He travelled on to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz before returning to Washington, the news outlet Axios said.

His trip was aimed at ending more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah along Lebanon's southern border, which escalated when Israel ramped up its strikes in late September and sent ground troops into Lebanon on Oct. 1.

Israeli troops have fought Hezbollah in a strip of towns along the border and this week pushed deeper to the edges of Khiyam, a town some six km (four miles) from the border.

Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli troops east of Khiyam at least four times on Friday. Lebanese security sources told Reuters Israeli troops had also advanced in a string of villages to the west. They said Israel was most likely trying to isolate Khiyam before attacking the town.

Four Italian soldiers were lightly injured after two rockets exploded at a UNIFIL peacekeeping force base in southern Lebanon, a spokesperson for UNIFIL said on Friday.

Italian sources said an investigation was under way. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italian media that Hezbollah might be responsible for the attack.

Israeli strikes on two other villages in southern Lebanon killed five medics from a rescue force affiliated with Hezbollah, the Lebanese health ministry said.

The more than 3,500 people killed by Israeli strikes over the last year include more than 200 medics, the health ministry said.

EVACUATION WARNINGS AND STRIKES

Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from Israel's north because of rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which began firing across the border in support of Hamas at the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

Israel also mounted more strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a once densely populated stronghold of Hezbollah.

Abeer Darwich, a resident of a building that was hit in Beirut southern suburbs on Friday, had to leave her apartment immediately after an evacuation warning from Israel's military.

She stood watching while an Israeli strike pounded the high rise building into dust.

"Do you know that most of the apartments' owners took credit to buy those houses? Life savings are gone, memories and safety ... which Israel decided to steal from us," Darwich said .

Evacuation orders were issued on X for several buildings in the area on Friday. Reuters footage showed one of the strikes appearing to pierce the center of a multi-storey building, which toppled in a cloud of smoke.