Syrian Army opens new front against ISIS in a surprise offensive

Sources embedded with the 11th Armored Division’s 60th and 67th Brigades conferred that the Syrian Army made a swift advance in the early morning of Tuesday when it captured the entire eastern series of Qaryatayn’s hills.

The aforementioned hilltops were defined as Syriatel Hill, Shuhada’ Hills (Martyr’s Hill), and al-Mashtal. Operations are ongoing as the Syrian military aims to reach Bardah fully surrounding the rebel bastion in Eastern Qalamoun and isolating it from the US-backed rebels of eastern Damascus.

Such an advance will not only cripple the insurgents’ hold of the Syrian Badiyah, but will also reopen the Damascus-Palmyra Highway providing the Syrian Armed Forces’s units present in the desert arena with a major logistic boost. It is expected that ISIS, unable to cope with all the fronts the Syrian Army is opening against it, will continue its retreat from the depth of the Syrian desert.

Currently, the SAA is fighting ISIS on all the front lines that are in contact with the notorious terror group including east Aleppo (where the Tiger Forces are less than 6 km from ISIS’s largest remaining Aleppo stronghold of Maskanah), east Hama, east Homs, east Damascus, and in the besieged enclave of Deir Ezzor.

This concentrated effort against the so-called Islamic State has only come at such a large-scale after the successful implementation of the de-escalation and ceasefire regime agreed upon by Turkey, Russia, Iran, and the United States. Capitalizing on the calmer front lines of northwest Syria, the Syrian government is now able to throw the bulk its attention onto the eastern fronts where it seeks to replant its long-lost influence in this resource-rich part of the country.