Syrian security forces, local factions uproot ISIS from Deraa

In cooperation with local factions, the Syrian security forces conducted a two-day operation, starting 14 October, to cleanse the city of Jassim from the ISIS extremist group in the western countryside of the Deraa governorate.

A curfew was announced through the minarets of mosques in the city, and local fighters from the town who had reconciled with the Syrian state began raiding a number of houses in which ISIS-affiliated elements were present.

The clashes left several ISIS militants and leaders dead, including Abu Mujahid Barqa, Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Iraqi, nicknamed “the Sword of Baghdad,” and a fighter of Lebanese origin called Abu Muhannad al-Lubnani.

Over the past weeks, the security forces threatened the leaders of the local factions that they would storm the city if ISIS-affiliated elements were not expelled. The dignitaries refused, prompting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to send reinforcements to the outskirts of the town, expanding its operation and later raiding farms.

In turn, the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria claimed that on 16 October, the Russian and Syrian forces carried out a special operation in Jassim, leaving 20 ISIS militants dead.

“A group of the Russian armed forces, in coordination with the units of the Syrian armed forces, carried out a special operation in Jassim in the Deraa governorate in southern Syria to eliminate ISIS elements involved in bombing a bus carrying Syrian soldiers in the Damascus countryside,” the center’s deputy director, Oleg Yegorov, said in a statement.

On the morning of 13 October, a bus carrying Syrian soldiers was hit by a terrorist bombing near the Damascus-Beirut highway near Sabbourah town, killing at least 18 service members and wounding over 27 others.

Remaining ISIS pockets are still hiding in some areas across Deraa, after having fled the towns of the Yarmouk Basin region, west of the governorate, when it was stormed by the army and local factions in 2018.

Source: thecradle