The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

The regime forces are about 70 km away of besieging the “Islamic State” in more than 11000 square km within the provinces of al-Raqqa, Homs, and Hama

The regime forces coming from al-Raqqa enter the administrative borders of Homs for the first time and seek to regain control as much as possible of the “Islamic State” organization’s controlled areas

The regime forces backed by their allied militiamen of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities resumed their military operation in the southern countryside of al-Raqqa, after controlling al-Resafa city on the 19th of June 2017, where violent clashes are taking place since yesterday the 13th of June 2017 between the regime forces and their allied militiamen with heavy shelling against members of the “Islamic State”, and the regime forces managed through these clashes to advance and control 3 oilfields, while they advanced today and controlled al-Kabir oilfield and areas located at the south and southeast of it, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned from several reliable sources that the regime forces coming from the countryside of al-Raqqa managed to enter for the first time the administrative borders of Homs province within a large wide scale operation in which the regime forces aim to advance and reach al-Hail oilfield area which the regime forces have controlled days ago, and if the regime forces managed to advance from the north to the south in an arrow-shape way for a distance of 70 kilometers starting from the administrative border of Homs and al-Raqqa, which the regime forces have entered today, and reached al-Hail oilfield area, the regime forces would have fully besieged organization-held area of more than 11 thousand kilometers square in the provinces of Homs, Hama, and al-Raqqa, and the organization would have two options either to surrender or get into the siege and fight till the end if it didn’t withdraw like what happened in the province of Aleppo by the end of June 2017.

The quest from al-Resafa to the northeastern countryside of Homs, which aims at controlling al-Kom strategic area, the organization’s stronghold and al-Sukhnah city which is the last stronghold of the organization in Homs province, comes in conjunction with consequent attacks by the regime forces, Palestinian al-Quds Brigade, Palestinian Al-Jaleel Forces, and other militiamen loyal to the regime forces on areas and positions of the “Islamic State” organization in the eastern countryside of al-Salamiyah city, in attempts to minimize the areas controlled by the organization in the eastern countryside of Hama, and the regime forces managed yesterday to force the organization under the pressure of the heavy shelling and violent clashes, to withdraw from 3 villages and hills surrounding them, while the Russian and the regime’s warplanes carry out intense airstrikes on Eqayrbat district and areas controlled by the organization in the eastern and northeastern countryside of Al-Salamiyah city, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned earlier that the Russian forces tends to provide fire coverage and preparations, through daily intense shelling on the organization-held areas in the eastern countryside of Hama, in order to secure the road for the ground forces coming from the abovementioned areas, where the Russian forces are seeking, through this operation, to control the remaining “Islamic State” organization-held areas, which include oil and gas fields.

The SOHR published yesterday that regime forces managed to take control of Al-Hail Oil Field and to force the rest of ISIS elements to withdraw from the field towards the areas under their control in Al-Sukhnah desert. The regime forces are now less than 15 km away from Al-Sukhnah city which is considered the last city under the control of ISIS in Homs Province. The regime forces are seeking to take control of more areas and to minimize ISIS controlled areas in preparation for the main battle for Al-Sukhnah which is considered the regime’ new gateway to Deir Ezzor Province, most of which is controlled by ISIS.

The Syrian Observatory also published about 3 days ago that the regime forces took control of al-Hail oil field, forcing the remaining members of the “Islamic State” organization in the field to withdraw from it towards their controlled areas in the Desert of al-Sukhnah.