E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Commandos kill 25 jihadists in central Syria
Adventures in the northeast of Homs province.
[Hurriyet Daily News] A commando operation backed by Russian warplanes and helicopters has killed 25 members of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in central Syria, a monitor said on Aug. 13.

Supported by regime ally Russia, Syria’s army has waged a months-long offensive to recapture the vast desert region that stretches from the country’s center to the Iraqi and Jordanian borders.

On Aug. 12, "25 ISIS members were killed and others maimed in a commando operation by Syrian regime forces with air support from Russian warplanes and helicopters" in the northeast of Homs province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Six members of the regime forces were also killed, it said.

A military source said the operation occurred "20 kilometers inside ISIS [ISIS] terrorist lines".

The raid allowed regime forces to seize control of three villages in the area, official news agency SANA reported the source as saying.

The army has captured swathes of territory from the jihadists in the province. According to the Observatory, ISIS now controls just dozens of villages in the east of Homs.

The Syrian "Badiya" is a large stretch of desert that extends over around 90,000 square kilometers of territory.

Since 2015, much of the Badiya has been held by IS, but Syria’s army has been chipping away at it since May.

Last week, the Observatory said regime forces had ousted ISIS from al-Sukhna, the last jihadist-held town in Homs province.

Syria’s army and Russia this weekend confirmed its full recapture.

"The liberation of al-Sukhna from ISIS turbans opens up possibilities for Syrian government forces to launch an assault and free the city of Deir Ezzor," a Russian army statement said.

The jihadists hold the majority of the vast desert province of Deir Ezzor including most of its picturesque provincial capital.

The recapture of Deir Ezzor "would largely -- if not completely -- mark the end of the fight against ISIS," Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Aug. 13 told the Russia 24 television channel.

Regime forces have more than doubled the territory they control in Syria over the past two months, he said.

Forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
are also fighting the jihadists in the south of neighboring Raqqa province.

A U.S.-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance meanwhile is battling to retake the picturesque provincial capital, Raqqa city, from ISIS.

The jihadists also hold the majority of the vast desert province of Deir Ezzor including most of its picturesque provincial capital.

Syrian Army bulls through ISIL’s defenses in east Hama, liberates several points

[AlMasdar] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) wasted no time after the announcement of al-Sukhnah’s liberation yesterday, liberating new areas from the remaining Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) gunnies clinging onto the eastern countryside of Hama.

Backed by heavy Russian Arclight airstrikes, the Syrian Arab Army’s Qalamoun Shield unit of the 3rd Division attacked the Islamic State’s positions near the town of Salba, scoring a new advance after an intense battle this afternoon.

According to a government source in Salamiyah City, the Syrian Arab Army and their allies seized several points, including the large hilltop of Tal Hikmat, from the Islamic State Death Eaters, killing and wounding scores of gunnies in the process.

The Syrian military is now gearing up for a major assault on the strategic town of ’Uqayrbat, which is considered the Islamic State’s last stronghold in central Syria.
Posted by: Fred 2017-08-14
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=494927