FILE IMAGE: ISIS members
Late on Sunday, ISIS recaptured Al-Mushirfa Hill, also known as Al-Alam Hill, east of Al-Mushirfa al-Gharbia village in the eastern Homs countryside.
According to the ISIS-linked News Agency Amaaq, ISIS fighters managed to recapture the hill after a VBIED attack on Syrian Arab Army (SAA) troops in the area. ISIS claimed to have killed 20 Syrian soldiers and seized many weapons.
The SAA and the National Defense Forces (NDF) captured Al-Mushirfa Hill in the morning on Sunday after Russian and Syrian Air Force warplanes targeted ISIS positions in the hill and its vicinity. However, the NDF failed to defend the hill because of its poor preparation, according to an NDF source in Homs.
The SAA has been trying for a month to advance in the eastern Homs countryside and the eastern Hama countryside. However, it hasn’t been able to achieve any real gains.
ISIS had fortified the area and transferred large reinforcements to it as it is one of the last ISIS supply lines linked to the Free Syrian Army (FSA)-held areas in Idlib. It’s believed that the SAA will change its plan in the coming days and may launch an attack from the Ithriya-Salamiya road towards the south where its positions in the Al-Sha’ir field northeast of Palmyra.
It seems IS still has offensive capabilities left. To replenish their arms caches, they either have to buy arms and ammo through corrupt officials and turks, or capture them. As IS resources are dwindling, capturing arms will become more important to them, hence a more offensive stance towards SAA(?)
ISIS have capability when outpost/ checkpoint are defended by conscript soldiers and NDF bad trained fighters!…look at east Aleppo…every ISIS VBIED attack vs Tiger Forces have been destroyed with ATGM and explosive traps!
I can imagine something from what you say. it makes second or third line defenses and or road blocks very vulnarable though.
SAA officer or generals have very poor tactical strategy and this is showing on many front lines, huge infantry loses and military hardware, which is not even mention in news reports. IN addition the same leaders have very poor ability to take advantage of initiative and momentum in battle fields. That’s why SAA advances are very slow, taking into consideration SAA have Air Support.
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ISUS have to hold this area – if they lose it SAA front lines shorten massively and the momentum becomes completely impossible to resist. That is why they have some crack troops here, and the fact that the SAA/NDF has not been able to advance here means Israeli intel has high focus here and it is fed directly to ISUS commanders. Perhaps SAA was hoping that they would leave before being surrounded (you see how SAA keeps a rout to the East carefully open) as is happening now, but it seems ISUS will not retreat under any conditions. If they retreat the rump Caliphate will be crushed rapidly.
Sounds like a reasonable explanation