Islamic State fighters in northern Syria in 2014

Seventeen months after losing control of their last village in Syria, Islamic State fighters are renewing attacks on Assad regime forces.

In the latest assault, ISIS targeted regime positions on Wednesday night near Salamiyah in Hama Province and in the Badiya al-Sham region in Homs Province.

Pro-Assad outlets said the regime’s military sent reinforcements to repel the attacks.

Last Saturday, an ISIS raid near a major highway in Deir ez-Zor Province in eastern Syria killed at least four pro-Assad militia and wounded two others

Following its offensives in 2014, the Islamic State held much of northern and eastern Syria as well as one-third of neighboring Iraq. However, it was eroded by a combination of attacks by Turkish-backed anti-Assad forces; the US-supported, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces; and Russia airstrikes alongside regime ground units.

The SDF pushed ISIS out of its Syrian “capital”, Raqqa, in 2017 and took the last ISIS village, near the Iraq border, in March 2019.