Dea*th toll update | Body of member of the National Defence found raising number of people kil*led to five
Deir Ezzor province: SOHR activists have documented the death of five members of the National Defence, after the body of a member the National Defence was found, and it is believed that he was killed by ISIS cells, after a group of member were reported missing on march 9.
Earlier today, SOHR sources reported that the bodies of four members of the regime-backed National Defence Forces of Al-Bosaraya tribe from Ayyash town in Deir Ezzor countryside were found in the western desert of Deir Ezzor.
The four men were among the group of 12, which had been gone missing since it headed to the desert on March 9 under a security campaign to search for ISIS cells. SOHR sources suggest that the four men were eliminated by ISIS, while the fate of the remaining members of the group remains unknown.
According to SOHR statistics, the number of fatalities in military operations in the Syrian desert since early 2023 has increased to 82; and they are as follows:
• Four ISIS members were killed in clashes with regime forces and Russian airstrikes on ISIS hideouts in the deserts of Homs, Al-Suwaidaa, Hama, Al-Raqqah, Deir Ezzor and Aleppo.
• 78 members of regime forces and their proxy militias, including 14 Iranian-backed Syrian and non-Syrian militiamen, were killed in 47 operations by ISIS members, including ambushes, armed attacks, and explosions, in west Euphrates region and the deserts of Deir Ezzor, Al-Raqqah, Homs, Al-Suwaidaa, Hama and Aleppo.
In addition, 101 civilians, including a woman, were killed in attacks by ISIS in the Syrian desert.
Here is a regional distribution of ISIS attacks in 2023:
-Homs desert: 17 operations left 106 fatalities:
• 29 combatants, including three Iranian-backed militias.
• 77 civilians, including a woman.
-Al-Raqqah desert: Seven operations left 16 fatalities:
• 11 regime soldiers
• Three ISIS members.
• One civilian.
• An NDF member.
-Deir Ezzor desert: 17 operations which left 30 fatalities:
• 29 combatants, including 11 Iranian-backed militias.
• One ISIS member.
• One civilian.
-Hama desert: Six operations left 19 civilians and nine combatants dead.
-Aleppo desert: One operation left three civilians dead.