Syrian rebels seize swathes of south as IS fighters retreat
AMMAN: Syrian rebels have seized large areas from IS in southern Syria in the last two weeks as the extremist group prepares to defend its Raqqa stronghold in the north from a USbacked assault, rebel commanders say.
The advances by Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions have helped to reduce the risk of IS fighters regrouping in areas near Damascus and the Jordanian border as they face major defeats in Syria and Iraq.
Western intelligence sources have worried for months that militants fleeing from their main urban strongholds of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq could find a safe haven in the vast areas of the Syrian Desert bordering Jordan.
The rebels’ sudden gains are a culmination of months of covert operations in which they have ambushed and cut communications lines to weaken the militants’ stronghold in the southeastern border area close to Iraq, the rebels say.
“Extensive areas have fallen into our hands. (IS) has been pushed out of them in heavy clashes in 16 days of battles,” said Talas al Salameh, the commander of the Osoud al Sharqiya, the biggest of the FSA groups in the area.
“(IS) had cut roads and were in control and had been positioned in former Syrian army bases with a strong presence and with heavy armour. We cut links between their areas and as a result they began to retreat,” Al Salamah said.
In northern Syria, IS has come under growing military pressure in recent months from separate campaigns being waged by the US-backed Arab and Kurdish fighters, by the Russianbacked Syrian army and by Turkeybacked FSA groups.
The US-led coalition against IS is backing an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters — the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — in the campaign to isolate and capture Raqqa city on the other side of the country.
Salamah said IS had pulled hundreds of fighters from the areas where his group, working with four others, had made its advances, suggesting they had been redeployed to help defend Raqqa and Deir al Zor province to the east.
The advances have taken place in a swathe of sparsely populated territory stretching from the town of Bir Qassab, some 50 km southeast of Damascus, all the way to the borders with Iraq and Jordan, a desert area known as the Badia.
“In the event of the fall of Raqqa and Mosul, where would they go- They would be coming here. So we decided to work and kick them out of this area before they would come to us,” Salameh said in a phone interview.
The rebels have also seized control of the eastern slopes of the Qalamoun mountains to the northwest of Bir Qassab, where IS’s presence had disappeared as it moved its forces further north, he said.