ISIS’ Defense Crumbles Amid Syrian Army’s Advance In Eastern Al-Suwayda

Could be. If memory serves me right last years advance was not into this territory but going east, along the Jordanian border. Until the Americans set up shop in At Tanf.

The Green Orcs withdrew to al-Tanf once the SAA showed up with sufficient forces to maintain control of the region while the rest advanced against ISIS. A good number of ISIS fighters withdrew into the deserts as the SAA and SDF made their sweeping advances. Assad, the Russians and SDF/US had a good idea of where they were holed up and a even better idea to leave them alone so they could watch other ISIS fighters trickle in to join them and where their supply lines run from. The US has the best routes blocked by al-Tanf so the Iraqis blocked their roads along the border and the SAA began blocking the remaining interior desert roads from all civilian traffic, including commercial trucks. Then they started a waiting game to see what ISIS would do once they start running low on foodstuffs and fuel. Some just attacked a FSA checkpoint near al-Tanf in either an attempt to escape or get waiting supply trucks thru. ISIS is attacking SAA positions by the river so they can get out of the desert and back where there’s water, supplies and arable ground to grow crops to feed themselves. ISIS was allowed to hole up in southern Hasakah along a wadi that has a fair number of farms plus a decent water supply. They came trickling in from Deir Azzor and Iraq since they had no where else to go in that arid region that’s practically unpopulated due to scant groundwater resources. Now it’s time to wipe them out since they’re bunched together and trapped where they’re at.

They were, it was between 1200 to 1700 fighters and about the equal amount of family members shipped to a secret location in Dier ez-Zor. The media reported a delay in the evacuation but that was just a cover, they had already began evacuating nearly a month beforehand and half of them had already left by the time the official evacuation started, who knows where any of them really ended up. By December last year the SAA did have control of all these areas. The Jordanians and the US convinced most of the Southern Front rebels to enter a ceasefire agreement with the SAA and they then pulled all their Southern Front forces away from the eastern parts of As-Suwayda and Rif Dimashq. The FSA didn’t agree to the ceasefire and still kept fighting in Homs under their own banner and without official US support. The Russians at the time accused the US of protecting fleeing FSA fighters with their artillery at Al-Tanf, and also stated they believed the FSA were using the 55km exclusion zone around the base to hide in and resupply from. More interestingly they also stated they believed Isis fighters were possibly doing the same thing. That was before December last year and there have been several similar incidents since then that have more or less had the Russians come right out and accuse the US of actually protecting fleeing Isis fighters with this exclusion zone. There’s heaps of articles concerning the matter. Last year the Iraqi’s, the SAA and the Russians all coordinated operations to clean up all the border regions under their control and asked the US to join the operation but were turned down. Without US support the SAA managed to totally clear the Syrian side of the border all the way up to the Euphrates, with only the base at Al-Tanf still posing a problem. The Iraqi’s had a little more difficulty on their side of the border, especially near the areas of Al-Tanf, but once they did, they quickly secured all the rest of their side of the border from top to bottom. The Iraqi’s managed to isolate the Iraqi Isis pocket away from the Syrian border, but were still having problems with Isis supply lines crossing the border at Al-Hasakah and Dier ez-Zor, both in SDF controlled territory. The Iraqi’s, US, French and SDF are now all involved in an operation to drive them out of these areas, but curiously the very first strike in this operation was an Iraqi airstrike in Al-Hasakah governate. Even stranger the Iraqi’s didn’t coordinate this attack with the US and SDF on the ground, they instead only asked for Assad’s approval. That made me think the Iraqi’s actually had to drag the US into this operation, after all they’ve been twiddling their thumbs here ever since the Turks invaded Afrin. The most southern part of the pocket of Isis that still operates in Homs and Dier ez-Zor, is only 75km to the north of the 55km zone at Al-Tanf, that’s only a couple of hours travel time even in the rough desert at night. If someone’s suppling you with good intel allowing you to evade SAA positions it’s probably even a pleasant drive between the 2 areas. The areas around Al-Tanf have never been free of Isis, the US base at Al-Tanf is their local HQ, Intel provider, supply depot, and recruitment facility. The US is now saying they’re considering pulling their forces out of this base but I think they’ll only leave after the Russian’s atomize their carcasses with nukes. The proposed Saudi gas pipeline was supposed to cross the Jordanian border right here where Al-Tanf is, and I think the US still want’s it too.

Sad thing is, it’s probably run in Turkey or Europe.

Salute!