In the Syrian arena, the ongoing fighting is now concentrated in the Idlib area. In the Iraqi arena, ISIS’s intensive activity continues in the various provinces in the north and west of the country. ISIS continued its media campaign designed to encourage and raise the morale of its operatives following the blow that it had suffered in Syria. Read more...
During four days, between April 8 and 11, 2019, the various ISIS provinces in Syria, Iraq and around the globe carried out a wave attacks in retaliation for the blow ISIS suffered in Syria. ISIS reported that eight of its provinces carried out more than 92 attacks in more than 80 areas. The attacks were accompanied by a media campaign and claims of responsibility entitled "Battle of vengeance for blessed [Province of] Sham" [Syria]. Read more...
The SDF forces have finished mopping up the Al-Baghouz area from the presence of ISIS operatives. In the Idlib area, exchanges of fire continue between the Syrian army and the Headquarters for the Liberation of Al-Sham and other jihadi organizations. In the Al-Sukhnah area, ISIS released a video showing the bodies of two Russian officers and a captive Syrian soldier. The video apparently shows the aftermath of an ambush set by ISIS operatives for a Syrian-Russian convoy on the road leading from Al-Sukhnah to Deir ez-Zor (March 17, 2019). Read more...
Even after the fall of ISIS’s “pocket” in the Al-Baghouz region, SDF forces continue to mop up the village and the surrounding area. In the meantime, ISIS continues to carry out acts of terrorism and guerrilla warfare in the Syrian arena. The Syrian army and the security forces of the SDF are employing counterterrorism measures against ISIS’s guerrilla activity. Read more...
The area of the village of Al-Baghouz fell this week into the hands of the SDF forces, ending the campaign which lasted more than six months to take over ISIS’s control area in the Lower Euphrates Valley. SDF spokesmen announced the destruction of ISIS and the end of ISIS’s control in the last “pocket” of Al-Baghouz. President Trump and senior US officials announced that the United States and its allies had liberated all the areas that had been under ISIS’s control in Syria and Iraq. At the propaganda level, ISIS continues its efforts to address its defeat. The loss of ISIS’s control area in the Lower Euphrates Valley marks the end of a process in which ISIS lost the rest of its control areas in Syria over the past year. Against the backdrop of the fall of ISIS in Syria, the intensive activity of the organization’s provinces throughout the world is salient. Prominent events that took place this week Read more...
On the eve of the fall of al-Baghuz Fawqani, the last stronghold of ISIS in the lower Euphrates Valley, ISIS began a media campaign. Its objectives are to encourage the organization's fighters and supporters, and to send the message that ISIS has lost the battle but not the war. A key person in the campaign is ISIS spokesman Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajer. Read more...
