Ahmed Shaaban (Damascus, Cairo)
At least 30 members of the Syrian army were killed in two attacks launched by members of the terrorist organization ISIS in the Syrian desert, local sources reported yesterday.
Sources reported that 22 people were killed as a result of an attack carried out by ISIS cells, targeting a military transport bus in the eastern countryside of Homs in the desert. In the second attack, 10 people were killed by targeting military headquarters in the village of Hasrat in the countryside of the city of Albukamal, east of Deir ez-Zor.
Since the beginning of the year, local sources have counted the killing of more than 200 soldiers in ambushes and separate attacks launched by the terrorist organization in the Syrian desert extending within the governorates of Deir ez-Zor, Homs, Raqqa, Hama, and Aleppo.
Experts and analysts warned of the continuation and increasing danger of the terrorist organization ISIS, and the threats it poses in Syria, the region and the world, especially after the attack it launched in the Russian capital, Moscow, which resulted in the killing of 137 people and the injury of more than 100 others.
The Syrian political analyst and director of the Kurdish Center for Studies, Nawaf Khalil, said that the danger of ISIS is greater than we imagine, and it seeks to gain more power on the ground, whether in the Syrian desert or other regions, and is working diligently to adapt after the defeat it suffered. In March 2019.
Nawaf stressed in a statement to Al-Ittihad that the fight against ISIS is not limited to the military aspect, and that the northeastern region of Syria, where the organization’s elements are located, needs to be rehabilitated and established infrastructure, and provide job opportunities for tens of thousands of young people. Because the political and economic crises and problems facing Syria, in addition to the war in the region, are all factors that provide opportunities for ISIS to benefit from them. He pointed out that ISIS is moving on Syrian soil to a greater extent than ever before, and the prisons in which more than 10,000 of its members are detained are a major strategic target. It seeks to liberate them to restore its ranks and strengthen its members. They tried to do this before in the Al-Sinaa prison in Hasakah, by carrying out an operation. Escape in August 2023.
Nawaf warned that the “Al-Hawl” and “Roj” camps in Al-Hasakah are a “time bomb.”
The Washington Institute published a warning map of the form and activity of ISIS, indicating that its operations are gradually escalating not only in Syria, but in all the regions where its members are deployed in the world, and it has been able to diversify its work, as it leads the “Khorasan Province” in Afghanistan. External operations, and in turn multiple other states extend territorial control in Africa.
For his part, Munir Adeeb, a researcher in the affairs of extremist movements and international terrorism, said that 5 years after the announcement of the fall of ISIS in 2019, the organization still exists and is carrying out operations in the geographical area that it controlled in the provinces of Raqqa and Mosul, and some African and European capitals.
Adeeb explained to Al-Ittihad that ISIS operations confirm that the organization has not ended until we talk about its return, and it still represents a great danger, and its cells have become, although some of them are dormant, and others are active, but they represent a threat to international peace and security, by carrying out operations. In different regions.
Adeeb called on the international community to develop a general vision and strategy for confronting terrorism, especially through the United Nations, and for there to be a clear and direct definition of terrorism, and then real confrontation operations against it would be launched in cooperation between all countries, to eliminate organizations that cross borders and continents.
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