IS*IS attacks in Syrian desert in 2022 | 261 regime soldiers and Iranian-backed militiamen ki*lled in 101 att*acks

ISIS continues its intensive attacks on different areas of the Syrian desert, a message for the regime forces and their allies that the Islamic group still has enough power to respond. Clearly, ISIS fighters are still deployed in nearly 4,000 square kilometres all along Jabal Abu Rajmin region in north-eastern Palmyra and the desert of Deir Ezzor and its western countryside, and Al-Sukhna desert and north of the administrative borders of Al-Suwaydaa province.

 

The areas of Aleppo-Hama-Al-Raqqah triangle, Homs and Deir Ezzor deserts, experience bombings, ambushes and attacks almost daily by ISIS that are countered by periodic security operations of regime’s forces and their proxy factions under cover of the Russian fighter jets.

 

In 2022, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) documented the death of 266 people in over 101 security operations by ISIS in the Syrian desert.

 

The fatalities are distributed as follows:

 

• 234 members of regime forces and their proxies.

 

• 27 Iranian-backed Syrian and non-Syrian militiamen.

 

• Five civilians.

 

Here is a monthly breakdown of those fatalities:

 

• January: Nine operations left 20 combatants dead.

 

• February: 11 operations left 23 combatants dead.

 

• March: Four operations left 24 combatants dead.

 

• April: 12 operations left 26 combatants dead.

 

• May: Five operations left eight combatants dead.

 

• June: 11 operations left 42 combatants and one civilian dead.

 

• July: Five operations left seven combatants dead.

 

• August: Five operations left 11 combatants dead.

 

• September: Nine operations left 18 combatants dead.

 

• October: 12 operations left 29 combatants and three civilians dead.

 

• November: Nine operations left 16 combatants dead.

 

• December: Nine operations left 37 combatants and one civilian dead.

 

Although ISIS has been defeated and eliminated as a dominated power, after having lost the large geographical area which it had dominated in Syria, the organisation continues its operations in different Syrian areas, such as the Syrian desert and SDF-controlled areas in north and east Syria. Accordingly, ISIS members and cells in those areas have exploited the escalating security chaos and focused on carrying out surprise and hit-and-run attacks, along with assassinations, explosions and planting landmines, attempting to prove that the “Islamic State” is still alive, especially after the elimination of senior leaders.