Almost Two Years After Defeat, ISIS Resurfaces in Syria’s Badia

Russian soldiers advancing and preparing to escort convoys of Syrian civilians from Tal Tamr via the M4 International Highway (AFP)
Russian soldiers advancing and preparing to escort convoys of Syrian civilians from Tal Tamr via the M4 International Highway (AFP)
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Almost Two Years After Defeat, ISIS Resurfaces in Syria’s Badia

Russian soldiers advancing and preparing to escort convoys of Syrian civilians from Tal Tamr via the M4 International Highway (AFP)
Russian soldiers advancing and preparing to escort convoys of Syrian civilians from Tal Tamr via the M4 International Highway (AFP)

For weeks, ISIS has managed to escalate its attacks against Syrian regime forces and their allies in the Syrian Badia, largely suggesting that the terror group has succeeded in reorganizing its ranks in the vast desert region.

This resurgence comes less than two years after ISIS suffering a crushing defeat in the town of Baghouz, which was the organization’s final stronghold on the banks of the Euphrates river in the Deir Ezzor countryside in eastern Syria.

In addition to the terror group’s hit-and-run attacks against pro-regime forces in the Badia, ISIS fighters have also been active in areas extending from the east of the Euphrates river to Iraqi borders.

These areas are controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces which had driven ISIS out of Baghouz in 2019.

Tough to secure, long stretches of desert in the Syrian Badia have proven an ideal environment for ISIS to keep cover and regroup. Isolated villages and convoys traveling the desert have become popular targets for ISIS terrorists.

Since 2017, forces of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, significantly backed by Russia and Iran, succeeded in retaking all strategic towns in the Badia, but effectively failed to control the whole desert region, which makes up almost half of Syria’s total geographic area.

Simply put, regime forces did not have enough troops to chase down ISIS militants across such a massive terrain.

The terror organization’s fighters were openly operating in the south, starting from the extremely rugged desert of Sweida, through the countryside of Damascus, Homs, and Deir Ezzor, in the east, reaching Raqqa and Hama in central Syria.

Regime forces, most likely, decided that ISIS had isolated itself in the desert and no longer posed an existential threat. In their assessment, confronting the terrorist group could come at a later time.

Consequently, regime forces shifted their attention towards remaining opposition strongholds.

They went on to mount a widespread military campaign that targeted the northwestern Idlib province and saw regime forces seize vital areas that were formerly held by opposition factions.

A research paper published by Chatham House in 2019 stated that ISIS dens in the Syrian Badia are mainly concentrated in three regions made up of tough mountainous terrain that is perfect for establishing hideouts.



Dozens Feared Dead in Gaza after Israeli Strikes

A fire burns amid the debris following an Israeli strike that hit a UN-run school where people had taken refuge, in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, as the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
A fire burns amid the debris following an Israeli strike that hit a UN-run school where people had taken refuge, in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, as the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
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Dozens Feared Dead in Gaza after Israeli Strikes

A fire burns amid the debris following an Israeli strike that hit a UN-run school where people had taken refuge, in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, as the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
A fire burns amid the debris following an Israeli strike that hit a UN-run school where people had taken refuge, in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, as the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Dozens of people were killed or unaccounted for after Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, a hospital director and the civil defense agency said Thursday.
One strike on a residential area near the Kamal Adwan hospital in the territory left "dozens of people" dead or missing, the facility's director Hossam Abu Safiya told AFP.
The process of retrieving the bodies and wounded continues, he said, adding: "Bodies arrive at the hospital in pieces."
Another strike was reported in a neighborhood of Gaza City.
"We can confirm that 22 martyrs were transferred (to hospital) after a strike targeted a house" in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.
Since Hamas conducted its October 7, 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, Israel has been fighting a war in Gaza, which the militant group rules.
It vows to crush Hamas and to bring home the hostages seized by the group during the attack.
Israel is also fighting Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both groups are backed by Israel's arch-foe Iran.
On Thursday, US envoy Amos Hochstein will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a truce in the war in Lebanon.
Hochstein's meetings in Lebanon this week appeared to indicate some progress in efforts to end that war.
On the Gaza front, the United States vetoed on Wednesday a UN Security Council push for a ceasefire that Washington said would have emboldened Hamas.
Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll from the resulting war has reached 43,985 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.
'Freedom to act'
In October last year, Hezbollah began cross-border attacks on Israel in support of its ally Hamas.
In late September, Israel expanded the focus of its war from Gaza to Lebanon, vowing to fight Hezbollah until tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by the cross-border fire are able to return home.
With Hochstein in Lebanon, Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Wednesday said that any ceasefire deal must ensure Israel still has the "freedom to act" against Hezbollah.
In a defiant speech, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem threatened to strike Israeli commercial hub Tel Aviv in retaliation for attacks on Lebanon's capital.
"Israel cannot defeat us and cannot impose its conditions on us," Qassem said in his televised address.
In Lebanon, Hochstein met with officials including parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah.
On Tuesday, Hochstein said the end of the war was "within our grasp", and on Wednesday, he said the talks had "made additional progress".
Since expanding its operations from Gaza to Lebanon in September, Israel has conducted extensive bombing primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds.
More than 3,544 people in Lebanon have been killed since the clashes began, authorities have said, most since late September. Among them were more than 200 children, according to the United Nations.
Israel has also recently intensified strikes on neighboring Syria, the main conduit of weapons for Hezbollah from its backer Iran.
In the latest attack, a Syria war monitor said 71 pro-Iran fighters were killed in strikes on Palmyra in the east of the country.
Those killed in Wednesday's strikes included 45 fighters from pro-Iran Syrian groups, 26 foreign fighters, most of them from Iraq, and four from Lebanon's Hezbollah, the monitor said.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in the country.
Fighting in south Lebanon
On Thursday, Lebanon's official National News Agency said strikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah's main bastion, following an evacuation call by the Israeli military.
Strikes also hit south Lebanon, including the border town of Khiam where Israeli troops are pushing to advance, according to the agency.
On Wednesday, Israel said three soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon -- bringing the total fallen to 52 since the start of ground operations on September 30.
The Lebanese army said Israeli fire killed one of its soldiers in the area, after it announced the deaths of three other personnel in a strike.
While not engaged in the ongoing war, the Lebanese army has reported 18 losses since the start of the escalation on September 23.
The Israeli military later said, without mentioning the deaths, that it was looking into reports of Lebanese soldiers wounded by a strike on Tuesday.
"We emphasize that the (Israeli military) is operating precisely against the Hezbollah terrorist organization and is not operating against the Lebanon Armed Forces," the military told AFP in a statement.
Hezbollah was the only armed group in Lebanon that did not surrender its weapons following the 1975-1990 civil war.
It has maintained a formidable arsenal and holds sway not only on the battlefield but also in Lebanese politics.
The United States, Israel's top military and political backer, has been pushing for the UN Security Council resolution that ended the last Hezbollah-Israel war in 2006 to form the basis of a new truce.

Under Resolution 1701, Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only armed forces deployed in south Lebanon.