Syrian army advances south towards area held by rebels
Raqqa jihadists urged to surrender by end-May
BEIRUT, May 25, The Syrian army said it had retaken a swathe of territory from Islamic State in southern Syria on Thursday in a rapid advance near areas held by US-backed Syrian rebels at the border with Jordan and Iraq.
The Syrian government said earlier in May that it was a priority to recapture the sparsely populated region known as the Badia where US-backed Syrian rebels seized a vast expanse of territory from Islamic State in March.
Tensions flared in the southern region last week when the US-led coalition mounted an air strike against pro-government forces that US officials said posed a threat to US and US-backed Syrian fighters in the area. Washington described the forces as Iranian-directed.
The Syrian army on Thursday declared the capture of areas to the south of Palmyra and to the east of Qaryatayn in southeastern Homs province. State TV showed footage of military vehicles including tanks driving through a desert landscape.
A military source told state news agency SANA that dozens of Islamic State fighters had been killed in the operation that resulted in the destruction of large quantities of weapons and ammunition and followed gains in the same area 48 hours earlier.
Advance
The advance by the US-backed rebels into the Badia in March was assisted by Islamic State’s retreat to other parts of Syria, where the group is facing separate offensives by US-backed forces and the Russian-backed Syrian army and its allies.
The coalition has been training the rebels to fight Islamic State at a garrison in al-Tanf, a strategically vital location at the intersection of the Jordanian, Iraqi and Syrian borders.
An official with one of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel groups operating in southern Syria told Reuters that government forces appeared to be trying to preempt any rebel move towards Deir al-Zor, another priority target for the government.
“The advances help the regime to widen the security belt around the Damascus and also will pave the way for a (government) push towards Deir al-Zor before the FSA groups by capturing territory in the northeast of the Badia that makes it difficult for (FSA groups) to advance in that direction,” Said Seif, an official in the Shahid Ahmad Abdo FSA group, said.
Deir al-Zor province is held mostly by Islamic State. The government still has a foothold in the city of Deir alZor, and controls a nearby air base.
A US-backed alliance of Syrian militias promised on Thursday that no harm would come to Islamic State fighters in Raqqa who turned themselves in by the end of the month, calling on them to lay down their arms ahead of an expected assault on the city.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, which groups Kurdish and Arab fighters, has advanced to within a few kilometres (miles) of Raqqa city at the nearest point, in an offensive that got underway in November to encircle and capture the city.
The SDF, which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, said earlier this month it expects to launch the final assault on Raqqa in early summer. YPG and SDF officials had previously given April start dates for the assault, but these slipped.
The US-led coalition has not declared any time frame for the final assault on Raqqa city, which has served as Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria since the group declared its crossborder “caliphate” in 2014.
In a statement, the SDF said a May 15 appeal for militants to turn themselves in within 10 days had achieved “positive results”, and the deadline would now be extended until May 31 based on “requests from the noble people of Raqqa”.
The SDF said it would guarantee the lives of militants who turn themselves in regardless of their position, “paving the way for the settlement of their situation”. The safety of their families was also guaranteed, it says.
The SDF statement issued by spokeswoman Jihane Sheikh Ahmad said the extension would “allow the greatest number possible of those who were deceived or forced to join to benefit from this opportunity”.
The US-led coalition says some 3,000 to 4,000 Islamic State fighters are thought to be holed up in Raqqa city where they continue to erect defences against the anticipated assault.