The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

More than 500 casualties during two weeks of attacks by ISIS in the Syrian Desert and the regime forces continue their failure to recover all what they have lost

The violent fighting is continuing between the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities against the members of the “Islamic State” organization, in areas in Al-Sukhnah desert in the eastern countryside of Homs, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that the organization carried out counter attacks during the past 24 hours, targeted the regime forces in the vicinity of the road between Al-Sukhnah and Deir Ezzor, and the organization managed to monitor the road again by positioning at nearby distances, and to attack the regime forces and gunmen loyal to them in areas on the road which is considered the main artery to Deir Ezzor city, these clashes were accompanied by violent clashes between the regime forces against members of the organization in the vicinity and the outskirts of the of Al-Qaryatayn city which has been controlled by the organization since 11 days, after groups of the organization infiltrated and carried out a surprising attack on the regime forces in the city which they had controlled in the beginning of 2016, and the clashes were accompanied by the continuation of shelling by the regime forces on the controlled areas of the organization and its positions during the past 24 hours.

Although the regime forces failed to recover the main areas that the organization controlled in the eastern countryside of Homs, they are Al-Qaryatayn city, Al-Taybah town and Dahik Mountain and other hills, heights and positions, they are continuing to fail to recover what they have lost, although two weeks passed since the organization started its counter attacks which enabled it to strike the regime forces successively deep in the areas of their control and in other areas that were controlled recently in the western countryside of Deir Ezzor and Al-Sukhnah area, in which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the death of more casualties of the both parties, thus, it has increased to 505 members of the both parties of who were killed since the 28th of September 2017, until the 11th of October 2017, in which the death toll has increased to 233 members at least of the regime forces and gunmen loyal to them, including 26 members of the Lebanese Hezbollah and about 94 members of the militiamen loyal to the regime forces of non-Syrian nationalities, while the death toll rose to about 272 members of ISIS of who were killed by blowing themselves up by using explosive belts and by booby trapped vehicles and in artillery and rocket shelling and raids and clashes against the regime forces in the areas where they attacked, in which the “Islamic State” organization which lost its presence in the provinces of Syria, and is under tight siege in its areas in some other provinces after losing much of what it used to control, yet, it did not miss an opportunity to strike the regime and Russia in their areas, where the recent attacks by the organization have got 2 points of strength, the first one is its entry to the depth of regime forces’ controlled areas and controlling a city about 100 km away from the nearest area controlled by the organization in Homs Desert, and the second is the failure of the regime forces to recover what they lost until now, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored a massive and violent attack carried out by the “Islamic State” organization in late September 2017 and it was led by the “Caliphate Army”, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned from reliable sources that the attacking army was led by leaders of non-Syrian nationalities (Arab and foreign) accompanied by fighters, infiltrators and suicide bombers and many of them are of the Syrian Bedouin.