Daesh militants, routed from one urban stronghold after another in Syria, have recently been moving deeper into Syria’s remote desert, where experts say they are regrouping and preparing their next incarnation, like reported by gulftoday.ae.
The militants’ self-proclaimed “caliphate” with its contiguous stretch of land — linking major cities such as Syria’s Raqa and Iraq’s Mosul — may have been vanquished, but many agree this territorial defeat will not mark the end of Daesh.
Beyond the urban and inhabited areas lies the vast Syrian Desert, also known as Badiyat Al Sham, famous for its caves and rugged mountains. It encompasses about 500,000 square kilometres across parts of southeastern Syria, northeastern Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia, and western Iraq.
The desolate landscape is a perfect hideout and a second home for many Daesh militants from the days before the birth of their caliphate. Experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to mount search operations — and even more to put the desert under permanent control.
Once they melt into the desert, without an army of tens of thousands of supporters from dozens of countries, Daesh militants will resort to guerrilla-style attacks: scattered hit-and-run attacks and suicide bombings.
“They love fighting battles in the desert and they will go back to the old ways,” said Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based opposition activist originally from Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor, which lies in the heart of Badiyat Al Sham.
Daesh leaders appear to have made contingency plans that involve precisely this — regrouping in the desert and launching attacks, much like Daesh’s predecessor, Al Qaida in Iraq, did for more than a decade after the US-led 2003 invasion.
Some of those plans are already on display. In the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen, a former Daesh stronghold, the militants pulled back and disappeared into the desert after only a few days of battle with Syrian government forces earlier this month.
Brett McGurk, the top US envoy for the anti-Daesh coalition, said the militant group is now down to the last 10 per cent of the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria.
Daesh will also look to buy time and benefit from political and other conflicts — such as this month’s clashes between Iraqi and Kurdish forces following the Kurdish independence referendum.
