Syrian desert | Russian jets continue airstrikes on ISIS positions, while Russian-backed militiamen secure the “oil road”
SOHR sources have reported seeing militiamen loyal to Russian and Syrian regime being deployed along the road used by convoys of oil trucks coming from north-east Syria in Aleppo-Al-Raqqah-Hama triangle in the Syrian desert. It is worth noting that these militiamen continued searching for ISIS cells and dismantling landmines in several areas in the region.
On the other hand, Russian jets are continuing their airstrikes on several positions in the Syrian desert from the eastern countryside of Homs to the deserts of Deir Ezzor and Al-Raqqah. However, the airstrikes are concentrated on Hama desert.
SOHR activists have documented 22 Russian airstrikes since dawn, bringing the number of airstrikes executed by Russian jets on positions in the Syrian desert since the early hours of Friday morning to 97. It is worth noting that the Russian airstrikes coincided with security operations in several sectors of the desert, searching for ISIS cells.
On Thursday, SOHR sources reported that Russian jets executed nearly 25 airstrikes on ISIS positions in the triangle of Aleppo-Hama-Raqqa, and at the administrative border between Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor in badia, amid reports of casualties. Russia was trying to limit the group’s movements and significant resurgence through intensive aerial bombardment after it failed to eliminate it from the ground.
A day earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored continuous aerial operations by Russian jets over the Syrian desert, with intensive airstrikes targeting positions and caves of the Islamic State members in the area of the Aleppo-Hama-Raqqah triangle, specifically in the desert of Athraya and Al-Rahjan, in addition to the al-Raqqah desert and at the administrative border between Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa.
This came as part of the Russian aerial operations in the region, where Russian jets carried out more than 55 airstrikes since this morning, killing 12 ISIS members and destroying vehicles and damaging caves and positions. Accordingly, the number of ISIS members killed in more than 280 Russian airstrikes in the past 96 hours rose to 43.