Islamic State group kills 54 fleeing Syrian soldiers: monitor

HOMS,— A Syria war monitor reported that Islamic State (IS) militants killed 54 soldiers in central Homs province on Tuesday as Islamist-led rebel groups advanced in a major offensive against government-held areas.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Syrian soldiers were captured while fleeing military service in the Sukhna area amid the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The Observatory, a Britain-based organization that relies on sources within Syria, stated that IS fighters intercepted and killed the soldiers in the desert region of Homs.

This area, part of the vast Badia desert stretching from Damascus to the Iraqi border, has remained a stronghold for IS remnants. Despite losing its territorial “caliphate” in 2019, IS continues to stage deadly attacks, primarily targeting government forces and Kurdish-led groups.

The recent surge in violence comes as the Islamist rebel coalition Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as al Nusra Front, along with allied factions, launched a sweeping offensive on November 27, 2024.

The campaign quickly dismantled key positions held by Assad’s government, with reports suggesting limited resistance from Syria’s war-weary armed forces. The Observatory highlighted significant territorial losses for the regime, culminating in its reported fall on Sunday.

In a parallel development, U.S. military forces conducted airstrikes targeting more than 75 IS locations in Syria over the weekend.

According to the U.S. military, the strikes aimed at neutralizing IS leaders, operatives, and training camps. Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized on Monday that IS remains a persistent threat and could exploit the current chaos in Syria to rebuild its networks and establish safe havens.

Blinken underscored the importance of continued vigilance, stating that the precision airstrikes were a demonstration of the United States’ commitment to preventing IS from regaining strength.

The evolving situation underscores the complex dynamics of the ongoing Syrian conflict, which has left millions displaced and thousands dead since its onset in 2011.

In March 2019, the US-backed Syrian Kurdish SDF forces drove the Islamic State out of its final stronghold in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz. Approximately 12,000 suspected IS members have remained detained in Kurdish-run prisons.

The war to dismantle the Islamic State’s “caliphate,” which once spanned an area the size of Great Britain across Syria and Iraq, came at a heavy cost. Over five years of intense conflict, more than 21,000 Kurdish fighters, both men and women, lost their lives in the effort to defeat the extremist group, according to Ilham Ahmed, a senior Syrian Kurdish official and co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC).

(With files from AFP)