Minimising Iran’s role | Russia brings in groups of settled-status fighters from south to Syrian Desert

Russian forces continue the process of transferring settled-status fighters to the Syrian desert from various areas of Syria, most notably from the south of Syria as part of their efforts to reduce Iranian influence in that area.

Reliable sources have informed the Syrian Observatory that a new batch of factions’ former fighters, who have joined the ranks of militias loyal to the regime forces and Russia after settling their security status, arrived in the Syrian Badia from Daraa and Quneitra near the border with the occupied Syrian Golan.

According to Observatory sources, the arrivals are being placed at checkpoints and posts in Al-Badia, in a Russian plan to replace Iranian forces and allied militias with these fighters, as Russia seeks to reduce and eliminate Iranian presence in the area where ISIS cells are increasingly becoming active.

Since the beginning of Ramadan, the Syrian Observatory had monitored five operations by the Islamic State in the areas controlled by regime forces and loyal militias of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities.

Different tactics were used in ISIS attacks such as bombing, IEDs and assassinations, which were concentrated in Al-Badiya of Homs and Deir ez-Zor. 21 regime soldiers and loyalists were killed in these attacks.