Iranian-backed fighters are routed in Syria

Residents, monitors say ISIS used rockets, suicide bombers in Albu Kamal

AMMAN (Reuters) – Islamic State fighters regained control of Albu Kamal, their last stronghold in Syria, after Iranian-backed militias that claimed to have captured the city a few days earlier were ambushed and forced to retreat, tribal leaders, residents and a war monitor said on Monday.

Hezbollah fighters in Syria who joined forces with Iraqi Shi’ite fighters crossing the border into Syria were taken by surprise by gunmen hiding inside tunnels.

The Shi’ite fighters had launched a ground offensive on the city, in Syria’s eastern Deir al-Zor province, after months of mainly heavy Russian bombardment that killed civilians and caused major destruction.

“Islamic State militants began surprise attacks with suicide bombers and rocket attacks after the Iranian militias were duped that Daesh [Islamic State] had left the city,” said Qahtan Ghanam al-Ali, a tribal leader in touch with relatives.

The Syrian Army had on Thursday declared victory over ISIS, claiming it had killed many fighters while scores surrendered. It said the capture of Albu Kamal marked the collapse of ISIS’s reign.

The army made no mention of the loss of Albu Kamal, but Hezbollah’s media unit said intensive aerial strikes pounded ISIS hideouts west of the city.

The offensive was spearheaded by elite forces from Hezbollah fighting alongside an array of Iraqi and Afghan Shi’ite militias that had entered from Iraq.

“These militant attacks lead to big human losses in the ranks of fighters supporting the regime,” the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Albu Kamal, a major hub for ISIS, was a big prize for the Iranian-backed militias. Its control of the city and its sister border town of al-Qaim on the Iraqi side had disrupted the strategic Baghdad-Damascus highway that had long been a major arms conduit between Iran and Syria.

The Syrian opposition and some western countries say Iran’s military support for Syrian President Bashar Assad and its backing of other Shi‘ite militias are fueling the sectarian dimension of the civil war by radicalizing mainstream Sunni rebels.

An overstretched Syrian Army is now more than ever dependent on Shi’ite militias and Russia’s military firepower to recapture ground from Sunni insurgents.

On Sunday, jets believed to be Russian intensified their third day of bombing the Albu Kamal area, with at least 50 civilians, mostly women and children, killed since Friday, the monitor and residents said.

In retaliation for their losses, Iranian militias forced to withdraw shelled villages east of the city where hundreds of families who fled Albu Kamal had found temporary refuge, the UK-based war monitor said.

In one air strike on Sukariya, east of the city, at least 30 people were killed, mostly women and children from three families, two former residents of the city said. Other aerial strikes hit villages of Marshada and Sousa near the river crossing where hundreds of civilians were targeted as they fled in small boats and dinghies.

Albu Kamal has been a target of intensive strikes believed to have been conducted by Russia across the province which have killed hundreds of civilians in recent months, according to the monitor and local figures.