Islamic State strikes from shadows in vulnerable Syria, Iraq

Latest News

Latest Reviews

Basketball

  • Raptors smack wounded Warriors 123-109 despite Curry’s 47

    The shorthanded Golden State Warriors were pushed around by a focused Toronto Raptors squad in...

  • Boxing

  • Bakbakan sa Ilocos Sur 2022: Knockout win target ni Toyogon kontra Tejones!

    Isasagad na nina boxing prodigy Al Toyogon at kalabang Joe Tejones sa main event ang kani-kanilang natipong...

  • Golf

  • Glutamax Men strengthens hold on lead

    BAGUIO CITY—Aian Arcilla once again led with his 25 points as Team Glutamax Men soared to an 87...

  • Popular News

    Oscar Valdez-Liam Valdez Showdown to be Contested for WBO Interim Junior Lightweight World Title

    The stakes have just gotten higher, When Oscar Valdez and Liam Wilson face off this Friday at...

    GM Joey Antonio 20 puntos tumulong sa PTC World Basketball team na manalo laban sa IIEE 97-90

    ni Marlon BernardinoGinawa ni Chess Grandmaster Rogelio "Joey" Antonio Jr. ang mga krusyal na...

    Mendoza naghari sa GMG Youth Open rapid chess championship

    Mendoza naghari sa GMG Youth Open rapid chess championshipby Marlon BernardinoNaghari sa...

    Islamic State strikes from shadows in vulnerable Syria, Iraq

    With a spectacular jail break in Syria and a deadly attack on an army barracks in Iraq, the Islamic State group was back in the headlines the past week, a reminder of a war that formally ended three years ago but continues to be fought mostly away from view.

    The attacks were some of the boldest since the extremist group lost its last sliver of territory in 2019 with the help of a U.S.-led international coalition, following a years-long war that left much of Iraq and Syria in ruins.

    Residents in both countries say the recent high-profile IS operations only confirmed what they’ve known and feared for months: Economic collapse, lack of governance and growing ethnic tensions in the impoverished region are reversing counter-IS gains, allowing the group to threaten parts of its former so-called caliphate once again.

    One Syrian man said that over the past few years, militants repeatedly carried out attacks in his town of Shuheil, a former IS stronghold in eastern Syria’s Deir el-Zour province. They hit members of the Kurdish-led security force or the local administration — then vanished.

    IS lost its last patch of territory near Baghouz in eastern Syria in March 2019. Since that time, it largely went underground and waged a low-level insurgency, including roadside bombings, assassinations and hit-and-run attacks mostly targeting security forces. In eastern Syria, the militants carried out some 342 operations over the last year, many of them attacks on Kurdish-led forces, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

    The Jan. 20 prison break in Syria’s Hassakeh region was its most sophisticated operation yet.

    The militants stormed the prison aiming to break out thousands of comrades, some of whom simultaneously rioted inside. The attackers allowed some inmates to escape, took hostages, including child detainees, and battled the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces for a week. It was not clear how many militants managed to escape, and some remain holed up in the prison.

    The fighting killed dozens and drew in the U.S.-led coalition, which carried out airstrikes and deployed American personnel in Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the scene. The battle also drove thousands of neighboring civilians from their homes.

    It harkened back to a series of jail breaks that fueled IS’s surge more than eight years ago, when they overwhelmed territory in Iraq and Syria.
    East Syria is also fractured among several competing forces. The Kurdish-led administration runs most of the territory east of the Euphrates, supported by hundreds of U.S. troops. The Syrian government, with its Russian and Iranian allies, is west of the river. Turkey and its allied Syria fighters, who view the Kurds as existential enemies, hold a belt along the countries’ border.

    Dareen Khalifa, a senior Syria analyst for the International Crisis Group, said the SDF’s dependence on an “unpredictable U.S. presence” in fighting the militants is one of its biggest challenges.

    She said the SDF is viewed as a lame duck that makes local residents reluctant to cooperate with anti-IS raids or provide intelligence on IS cells, particularly after the group threatened or killed many suspected collaborators in the past.

    Residents say the Islamic State group is not collecting taxes or actively recruiting people, indicating they are not seeking to seize and control territory like they did in 2014, when they became de-facto rulers of an area that stretched across nearly a third of both Syria and Iraq. Instead, they exploit the security vacuum and lack of governance and resort to intimidation and kidnappings.

    The resident of Shuheil in Deir el-Zour said they mostly operate at night, in flash attacks on military posts or targeted killings carried out from speeding motorcycles.(AP)

     

    (Photo credits to: AP)