Syria: Army Offensive In Desert Area Under Islamist Control

The government army arrived on Thursday evening May 25 to resume for the first time since 2014 the highway linking Damascus to the ancient city of Palmyra (photo).

In Syria, the government army arrived on Thursday evening, May 25, to resume for the first time since 2014 the highway linking Damascus to the ancient city of Palmyra, after having driven through the Russian support the Islamic State group of a large desert area.

The takeover of the Damascus-Palmyra motorway is part of a major offensive by the Syrian army and its allies against the Islamic state group in the central desert, which covers an area of 90,000 square kilometers, Half of Syria.

This attack began a month ago in the region of Palmyra and in several directions. First to the south, in the desert east of Damascus, then to the southeast, towards the Jordanian border, and finally to the northeast, towards the town of Al-Sokhna, Considered the first line of defense of the city of Deir Ezzor, partly occupied by the jihadists.

Supported by the Russian air force and deploying a great firepower, the Syrian army advanced on all these fronts, taking back to the Islamic State group an area of 5,000 square kilometers, according to Syrian sources.

The target of this great battle of the desert is to reach the Syrian-Iraqi border in order to re-establish the land supply routes between Syria and Iran via Iraq. A strategic and vital goal for the Lebanese Hezbollah which has engaged 3,000 men in this battle.

But the United States and its allies do not see it well, and they showed it by bombing a column of the Syrian army on May 18 that had gone too close to the Jordanian border.