Syrian forces kill dozens of ISIS militants near US occupation base

Russia and Syria say the US harbors and trains militants from ISIS and other groups in the 55 km buffer zone surrounding its base in Al-Tanf

ISIS militants launched a massive attack on 3 May on several points belonging to the forces supporting the Syrian army in the Al-Sukhna desert in the Homs countryside in eastern Syria, Sputnik reported.

A Sputnik correspondent in Homs said that the Syrian army and its auxiliary forces were able to repel the attack with the help of reinforcements, killing and wounding 40 ISIS militants. At the same time, 13 members of the Syrian army’s auxiliary forces were killed in the battle.

ISIS launched the attack on Syrian military outposts in the Al-Sukhna desert, which lies north of the 55-kilometer buffer area surrounding the illegal US base at Al-Tanf on the Syrian–Jordanian–Iraqi border.

The US claims it occupies the Al-Tanf base to fight ISIS. However, the Russian and Syrian governments say US forces use the 55-kilometer buffer zone around the base to harbor and train militants from ISIS and other mercenary groups, including the Syrian Revolutionary Commandos, Ahrar al-Sharqiya, and the Ahmed al-Abdo Army.

US warplanes bomb any Syrian forces attempting to enter the Al-Tanf buffer zone to fight these groups.

On 19 April, at least 20 fighters from Liwa al-Quds, a Palestinian armed group supporting the Syrian army, were killed when their bus was ambushed by ISIS militants in Al-Sukhna.

ISIS militants attacked the bus with heavy machine guns and B7 artillery shells as it was traveling between the village of Al-Koum and the city of Al-Sukhnah in the eastern Badia desert near Palmyra.

Last Tuesday, the Deputy Head of the Russian Reconciliation Center between the warring parties in Syria, Major General Yuri Popov, announced that the Russian Air Force destroyed two bases for militants who had left the Al-Tanf area and were hiding in difficult-to-reach mountainous areas in Homs Governorate in central Syria.

Popov said, “Russian air force strikes destroyed two bases for militants who left the Al-Tanf area and were hiding in inaccessible areas in the Al-Amur mountain range in Homs province.”

ISIS emerged in Syria as part of the covert US and Israeli war on Damascus that began in 2011. Through Operation Timber Sycamore, the CIA and allied intelligence agencies funneled billions of dollars in weapons and aid to Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Syria from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UK, and Libya in an effort to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.