ISIS Gains Momentum in Syria, Avoids Iranian Militias

ISIS members in Syria (SOHR)

ISIS has significantly escalated its attacks in Syria during the first half of 2024, a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Thursday.
The Observatory revealed that ISIS still avoids targeting Iranian militias despite their large presence in the Syrian desert (Badia).
Instead, ISIS mainly targets Syrian regime forces, killing many officers, it said.
SOHR also said that ISIS targeted military and civilians alike. The attacks were mainly staged within scattered areas of the Syrian desert under the control of the regime and Iranian militias, and in areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern and eastern Syria.
It noted that the terrorist group killed hundreds of people despite the sweep campaigns launched against its cells by Russian-backed army forces in the Syrian countryside and the security operations carried out by the SDF, with the support of the International Coalition, in northern and eastern Syria.
On Wednesday, ISIS killed eight people, including two civilians, in an ambush on pro-government militiamen in Syria’s desert.
The monitor group reported a death toll of eight, including “six members of the National Defense Forces and two sheep herders.”
According to SOHR statistics, ISIS has killed 449 people in 155 military operations it launched in the Syrian desert since early 2024.
The Britain-based monitor with sources in Syria said that the fatalities include 29 ISIS members, three of whom were killed in Russian airstrikes and the others by regime forces and their proxy militias.
It added that 376 members of regime forces and their proxy militias, including 33 Iranian-backed Syrian militiamen and three members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, were killed in 155 operations by ISIS members, including ambushes, armed attacks, and explosions, in west Euphrates region and the deserts of Deir Ezzor, Al-Raqqah, Homs.
The SOHR report said all counter-operations to limit the rise of ISIS have failed.
ISIS overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a governorate and launching a reign of terror.
It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019, but its remnants still carry out deadly attacks -- particularly in the desert -- and mainly targeting government loyalists and Kurdish-led fighters.
Last month, the Observatory said ISIS fighters had killed nearly 4,100 people in Syria since 2019.
The United Nations in January said ISIS’s combined strength in Iraq and Syria was 3,000-5,000 fighters, with the desert serving as a hub for the group in Syria.