On June 28, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) repelled an attack of ISIS on its positions around “point 400” on the Syrian-Iraqi border southwest of the city of al-Bukamal, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
In an official statement, the SAA General Command said that SAA soldiers killed many fighters of ISIS and destroyed a pickup armed with a machinegun while repelling the attack. The SAA also captured several weapons and a mini UAV from the terrorist group.
A day earlier, the SAA announced that its units backed by the Syrian Arab Air Force had cleared the Deir Ezzor desert – over 5,200km2 – from ISIS. However, it appears that ISIS cells are still active on the border line between Syria and Iraq.
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The upcoming days will likely witness a new security operation of the SAA and its allies against the remaining cells of ISIS around al-Bukamal. However, the effectiveness of such operations will remain limited, due to the presence of ISIS in the Homs desert and on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river.
>>A day earlier, the SAA announced that its units backed by the Syrian Arab Air Force had cleared the Deir Ezzor desert – over 5,200km2 – from ISIS. However, it appears that ISIS cells are still active on the border line between Syria and Iraq.<<
It gives me no joy to say this, quite the contrary as dead ISIS and Al Nusra rats give me a happy, but I said this would happen.That desert is just too big to be policed with too few troops. Shit will sneak by. To declare that the desert was cleared was basically asking for this to happen.
Unless that was exactly what they would hope would happen. In which case, dead ISIS rats, just as planned! (But sadly I think not)
You have reason, its a too big desert, but this was much to south of the annouced cleaned up zone, and looks a little like a suicide attack