The last few days have seen a resurgence of the ISIS extremist group in central Syria as the Assad regime is being faced with growing threats of retaliation by the international community to the war crimes it is committing in Syria, the latest of which is the use of chemical weapons in the town of Douma.
The Syrian Coalition said that the Assad regime has allowed ISIS to bounce back in an attempt to cover up its crimes and draw attention away from them.
The extremist group has been once again active in various parts of Syria over the past two days. Activists in rural Homs said that ISIS militants advanced towards the Tadmur-Deir Ezzor road near the town of Sukhna after they captured several regime positions, including in Al-Saba Biyar and the Zaza checkpoint located on the Damascus-Baghdad highway near Alsin airbase.
Activists said that ISIS militants did not have a presence in the area in the past few months, adding that they made these advances after a surprise attack on Assad regime positions. The latest ISIS activity was coincided with intense aerial activity by the Assad regime and Russia air forces over the region without targeting ISIS militants or attempting to stop their advance.
The Syrian Coalition stressed that “there is a generic relationship between the Assad regime and ISIS,” adding that the Assad regime considerably contributed to the emergence of the extremist group.
Many investigations have previously revealed collusion between officials of the Assad regime and ISIS, including most notably deals for the purchase of oil and grain from the extremist group.
The Assad regime’s chemical attack on Douma on Saturday, in which nearly 100 civilians were killed, drew widespread condemnation, with US Defense Secretary James Matisse not ruing out the possibility of military action against the Assad regime. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
