Syrian desert | Over 40 Russian airstrikes target Aleppo-Hama-Raqqah triangle, as combing operations continue to secure Deir ez-Zor-Homs road

SOHR activists say that Russian jets continue flying over the Syrian desert, executing further airstrikes on ISIS positions within the Aleppo-Hama-Raqqah triangle. The Syrian Observatory has monitored Russian jets executing more than 40 airstrikes in the early hours of the morning to date.

Meanwhile, regime forces and National Defense Forces, forces of the Fifth Corps and the Russian-backed Al-Quds Brigade, continue combing the desert between Deir ez-Zor and Homs in order to secure the road connecting the two provinces.

Yesterday, reliable sources informed the Syrian Observatory that joint forces of the Russian-backed militias of “Liwaa Al-Quds” and “5th Corps” as well as the regime-backed “National Defence Forces” (NDF) started a new security campaign in the Syrian desert with the aim to secure Deir Ezzor-Homs highway in the wake of ISIS escalating operations, including ambushes which recently left tens of regime soldiers and loyalists dead and wounded.

Combing operations, with the participation of Russian helicopters, started from Kabajeb and Al-Shawla in the west of Deir Ezzor to Al-Sukhnah.

On December 30, SOHR sources reported a well-planned ambush by Islamic State members, targeting three buses carrying pro-regime militiamen and soldiers of the 4th Division in al-Shula desert on Homs-Deir Ezzor road, which claimed the lives of 39 regime-backed militiamen and injured others.

ISIS also initiated 2021 with an ambush, on January 1, targeting a bus, several other cars and oil trucks on Damascus-Al-Raqqah highway, near Wadi Al-Ozayb area. The attack resulted in the death of 12 regime soldiers and three civilians, including a little girl.