Russia defeats Islamic State strongholds in Syria as insurgency

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors developments in the Syrian war, said 26 members of the Islamic State had died in Russian airstrikes in Palmyra and other areas in the central Syrian desert in recent days.

Islamic State conquered the ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra in 2015 and destroyed a series of Roman temples, tombs and other objects. Supported by Russian airstrikes, the Syrian government recaptured the ruins in 2016.

The airstrikes came after the Islamic State claimed to have killed two Russian soldiers who wanted to land in a helicopter in Homs province in Syria.

From the deserts in the desert in central and eastern Syria, Islamic State militants have expanded their reach in recent years, hitting highways across the country, attacking oil convoys, killing Syrian military commanders and killing a Russian general during a roadside bomb attack in April 2020.

Although they no longer control an important area two years after losing a self-proclaimed caliphate, the militants accelerated the pace of their attacks, leaving Mr. Assad is fighting an uprising in parts of the country where he nominally rules.

“You can contain it, but you cannot destroy it,” said Robert Ford, a former US ambassador to Syria, referring to the Islamic State.

The rising violence poses problems for Russia and Iran. The two foreign powers have helped President Bashar al-Assad recapture much of the country and are critical of efforts to re-establish government control in remote parts of central and eastern Syria.

Meanwhile, Iran-backed factions are strengthening bases in the desert on the Syrian-Iraqi border in an effort to curb Islamic State attacks and secure their influence in the region. The bases are so far ineffective, says Manhal Bareesh, a Syrian researcher, as the Islamic State is capable of hitting factions backed by Iran, even within the relative security of large towns.

The uprising also puts pressure on Biden’s government as it considers the future of the US presence in Syria, which includes hundreds of US troops working with local militias around the Islamic State in a part of eastern Syria north of To combat Euphrates River.

Operations by US-backed Syrian Democratic forces have swept groups of Islamic State fighters and commanders out of northeastern Syria, only to find militant refuge in the government south of the Euphrates, according to Omar Abu Layla. A Syrian expert on the conflict and head of a newspaper in Deir Ezzor, the largest city in the east of the country.

After the Islamic State conquered much of the territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014, its territorial empire collapsed under attack by Iraqi and Syrian forces, backed by thousands of US airstrikes and a parallel military effort by Iran is organized. In 2019, the extremist group lost its last territorial foothold in northeastern Syria.

Anti-terrorism officials and experts expected the group to return to its former state as a grassroots militant organization formed during the 2003 uprising against the US invasion of Iraq. The intensity of the revival of the group surprised many who followed the evolution of the group.

In 2020, the Islamic State carried out at least 286 attacks in Syria, more than double the number of the previous year, and killed at least 432 government fighters and 41 civilians, according to a detailed count of the attacks by Gregory Waters, a researcher at the Middle East Institute and a specialist on the Syrian uprising of the extremists. Since January 2021, the group’s attacks have killed at least 189 people, including civilians, according to Mr. Waters.

The operations of Syrian and Russian troops to retake the strongholds of the militants collapsed against more formidable opposition. In one operation last year, Syrian government troops and Russian military contractors tried to remove the Islamic State from an oasis in central Syria after a series of attacks on a nearby city. Overwhelmed by Islamic State fighters in the area, pro-government forces were forced to withdraw, according to Syrian monitors and Mr. Waters.

The attacks by the Islamic State on oil facilities and convoys carrying oil have created widespread dissatisfaction with the regime in Damascus. Mr. According to Saddam al-Jassir, a researcher from eastern Syria, Assad and his allies did not provide adequate services to the territories they recaptured from the Islamic State.

“Daesh is an idea,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. “It never disappeared and it’s still there because there was no idea to take the place.”

Write to Jared Malsin by [email protected]