ISIL forces on march to Damascus
Thousands of militants losing the fight for Mosul move with artillery across desert area they largely control in southern Syria
IRBID, JORDAN // ISIL militants have flooded into southern Syria, heading towards Damascus as the group moves troops who have been fighting for control of Mosul in northern Iraq.
A steady stream of ISIL fighters and weapons, including missiles and artillery, have been trickling from their strongholds of western Iraq and eastern Syria since December.
But with sustained military campaigns to out it from Mosul and north-eastern Syria, ISIL has accelerated the move, Syrian rebel commanders say.
“ISIL has concluded there is no hope of winning the battle for Mosul, so priority has been given to the battle for Syria,” said an independent military adviser in Jordan who tracks the group.
As its territory in Iraq shrinks, ISIL has expanded into areas of Syria in which its presence had been lighter.
Many of its heavily armed fighters have tried to infiltrate the Ghouta area, to the south and east of Damascus.
It has also set up a weapons stockpile in Tal Asfer, on the eastern edge of Sweida – a city dominated by members of Syria’s minority Druze community.
Sweida remains under the con- trol of forces loyal to president Bashar Al Assad.
ISIL has also reinforced positions in Bir Qassab, a strategically important village to the north-east of Damascus. Foreign fighters with the group have also bolstered its holds in Deir Ezzor, Homs and Palmyra.
ISIL seized Palmyra in May 2015, was pushed out by a Russian-Syrian campaign, then retook the ancient city in December when Syria government forces withdrew.
Convoys of ISIL fighters and weapons, including anti-aircraft guns, medium-range artillery and small arms and ammunition, ap- pear to be moving through the Syrian Badia, a large, sparsely populated desert steppe linking north-eastern and southern Syria with western Iraq. It also reaches into north-eastern Jordan.
Much of the Badia appears to be under ISIL control, to the alarm of the Jordanian government and the Military Operations Command centre in Amman.
The centre is staffed by international army and intelligence officers who have been backing moderate rebels opposed to Mr Al Assad and helping to direct the fight against ISIL in the south.
“The Badia is a fertile area for ISIL. If they can control it, it will be hard to get them out of there,” a senior rebel said.
The number of ISIL fighters in the area is unknown but more than 2,000 were in areas around Bir Qassab at the end of last year, according to rebel intelligence. In the past two months that number has swollen.
The growing strength of ISIL in the area prompted an attack by the Jordanian air force on February 3, when jets struck a site on the outskirts of Damascus used to prepare car and lorry bombs.
Two days after the raid, the Jordanian military said it had destroyed barracks, ammunition warehouses, vehicles and ISIL fighters. Although Jordanian forces have not confirmed the precise location of the targets, rebels said the air strikes were in the Badia, to the east of Bir Qassab, and in the eastern Ghouta.
It is thought to be the first time that Jordanian forces have flown so close to Damascus since becoming embroiled in the conflict against ISIL, as Syria’s bloody civil war has spiralled out of control.
Previous Jordanian sorties have been in the more remote eastern desert region near the Iraqi border. “What made the Jordanians anxious is that the ISIL military convoys have been withdrawing from Mosul, unlike before where we used to see them leaving in a groups of 50 or 60 fighters,” said the Syrian rebel commander.
ISIL already has forces deep inside southern Syria. Its affiliated Khaled Bin Waleed army is dug into the Yarmouk River basin, near the border with Israel and Jordan.
Moderate rebels, backed by the command centre, have been besieging the Khaled Bin Waleed forces but have been unable to strike a decisive blow.
On Sunday night, the Khaled Bin Waleed army launched a series of lightning raids against villages held by moderate rebels, including the strategically important Tal Jama’a. Moderate factions have since pushed back but fighting is ongoing – a sign of how strong ISIL remains in the area.
According to a Syrian opposition activist in the area, ISIL fighters have been able to move in and out of the so-called siege zone by paying bribes to moderate rebel forces.
“The siege has been tightened but ISIL fighters and commanders were able to break it,” said the opposition activist. This month, an ISIL commander, known as Abu Abdullah Kinnawi, passed from northern Syria, through the rebels’ siege, and into the area controlled by the Khaled Bin Waleed army, rebel sources said.
A rebel military source confirmed there was collaboration between some of the MOC-backed rebel groups and the Khalid Bin Waleed army, saying that rogue elements among the more moderate factions were giving logistical support to ISIL.
Even rebel groups more sin- cerely committed to the fight against the Khalid Bin Waleed army said it had proven to be more resilient than they expected, citing a wave of assassinations against rebel fighters, carried out last month by ISIL cells. Phil Sands reported from Boston, America