10 civilians killed in US strike in Syria

ELIMINATING DAESH IN DESERT IS MAIN PROBLEM FOR SYRIA, IRAQ, ANALYSTS SAY

Daesh considers raids like those on Al Bu Kamal to be victories, a military analyst said, but there will be many more hit-andrun raids to come.

An air raid on a village in northeast Syria held by Daesh group killed at least 10 civilians including three children yesterday, a Britain-based monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes on Tal Al Shair in the northeastern province of Hasakeh were carried out by the USled coalition fighting Daesh in Syria and neighbouring Iraq since 2014. There was no immediate confirmation from the coalition of the strike, the latest in a series of raids to have caused civilian casualties in the area in past weeks.

Tal Al Shair lies in a small pocket still held by Daesh fighters near the Iraqi border in the south of Hasakeh, where a Kurdish-Arab alliance backed by the coalition has been battling the jihadists in recent days. aesh may have lost most of its territory in Syria but recent deadly attacks against pro-regime fighters are a foretaste of more to come, analysts say.

Surprise Daesh raids

Despite pro-regime forces ousting Daesh from urban centres in eastern Syria last year, surprise raids there in past weeks have killed dozens of regime and allied fighters.

On Friday, the group rammed into Al Bu Kamal on the Iraqi border in its first major incursion inside the town in more than half a year.

Despite being expelled from most towns of the proto-state it declared in 2014 in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, analysts say Daesh has retained the ability to pounce from the desert.

“When the (Syrian) regime or the Iraqi regime declared that they were able to vanquish Daesh, this is a very inaccurate statement,” military analyst Nawar Oliver at the Turkey-based Omran Institute said.

“You were able to vanquish Daesh in the city — such as Deir Al Zor, Al Bu Kamal, Mayadeen, Palmyra — but you were not able to get rid of Daesh in the desert, which is your main problem right now,” he said.

The Syrian regime’s army backed by Russia retook these urban areas last year, the first three in the eastern province of Deir Al Zor and the last in the central province of Homs.

Daesh considers raids like those on Al Bu Kamal to be victories, Oliver said, but there will be many more hitand-run raids to come.

“The attacks will continue to be launched from the desert, targeting pipelines, main roads, border crossings — which will give any regime a huge headache,” he said.

The border post near Al Bu Kamal is for now controlled by Syrian and Iraqi forces, but activist Omar Abu Leila said there was undoubtedly coordination between Daesh fighters on both sides of the frontier. This came through “their hidden movement through the deserts and through disguise — perhaps with the uniforms of local drivers”, the Deir Al Zor native said. –Agencies