ISIS expand its control during the first month of 2018 to about 110 towns, villages and areas inside the Syrian territories
Despite confining its influence in the Syrian territories…the regime and the SDF fail to end the presence of ISIS
The “Islamic State” organization has been continuing to maintain the areas of its influence for weeks, in the Syrian territories, these areas where the organization’s opponents remaining in the direct military confrontation against it, supposed to end its presence and complete to impose their control over the remaining pockets of the organization which lost tens of square kilo meters of its controlled areas, and turned in 2017, from the largest influential power with an area of 95325 square km, and with a percentage of 51.48 % of the geographical area of Syria, into a power that only controls about 3% of the geographical area of Syria with an area of 5750 square km.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the field developments, which have been in favor of ISIS, since the stop of advancing at the expense of it late in December 2017, as since the SDF managed to confine its decrease the control of the organization on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River to 5 villages and towns which are al-Bahra, Hajin, Abu al-Hassan, Sha’afah and Al-Baghuz, the SDF were not able to achieve advancement despite their attempts to carry out operations in many fronts in the areas remaining on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River, the organization is also presented in the part in the north-eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, which is connected with the southern countryside of Al-Hasakah which still include 22 villages and areas including Tal Al-Jaber, Tal al-Mnakh, Om Haffur, al-Rimat, Fakkah al-Tarraf, Fakkah al-Shwaykh, al-Hessu, al-Bawardi, al-Dshishiyah, Bajari Desert adjacent al-Suwar Desert which includes the administrative borders between Deir Ezzor and Al-Hasakah.
And on the contact fronts with the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities, ISIS has expanded its scope of control, as after the presence of the organization had finished in the eastern countryside of Hama and Uqayribat area, it was reborn in the north-eastern countryside of Hama, and managed since it passed through the regime-held areas in the first third of October 2017 and until today the 18th of January 2018, to take the control of 63 villages in Idlib and Hama countryside, to reach a distance of about 15 km away from Abu Al-Duhur Military Airbase, and this advancement took place from 2 fronts, one of them was at the expense of the regime forces and the other was at the expense of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, in which the organization managed to impose its presence in these two provinces, and it also brought reinforcements of hundreds of fighters arrived through the regime forces-held areas in the Syrian Desert, and the contact areas between the regime forces and ISIS, did not witness any fight except few days ago when the regime forces started a limited attack through which they had taken the control of a village and a hill before the organization carried out an attack to the north and reached Sinjar town.
This presence in the contact areas with the regime forces is not the only one, as the organization still impose its control on large spaces in the southern section of the capital Damascus, in large areas of Yarmouk Camp and Al-Tadamon neighborhood as well as large spaces of Al-Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood, and it is also presented in 14 communities in the eastern desert of Al-Sukhnah city in the eastern countryside of Homs and Al-Tiba area north of Al-Sukhnah, and despite the allegations and the preparations the regime forces and gunmen loyal to them and the Russian forces on one hand, and the Syria Democratic Forces supported by the International Coalition on the other, they did not manage to end the presence of the organization in their controlled areas, and the organization did not wait the operations of the regime forces and the SDF to end its presence, but it turned instead to carry out violent attack using booby trapped vehicles and explosive belts which enabled it to kill tens of its opponents in the areas which it is located in, or which it lost earlier. Also Jaysh Khalid Ibn Al-Walid which swore allegiance to the “Islamic State” organization is controlling an area about 250 square km which is 0.13% of the Syrian land area, and is located in the Yarmouk Basin in the western the countryside of Daraa adjacent to the occupied Syrian Golan.