BEIRUT,
Lebanon — The extremist militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and
Syria have attacked Syrian troops with new ferocity in recent weeks,
taking over three northeastern military bases, beheading scores of
soldiers and seizing new territory.
The
jihadist offensive has prompted some panicked supporters of the Syrian
government to sharply criticize the leadership, questioning why it
appeared to allow ISIS to build a base in the northern Syria province of
Raqqa over the last year while claiming the Syrian Army was fighting
terrorism. As far back as June, as ISIS fighters swept back into Syria
with American weapons looted in Iraq, Elia Samaan, a government adviser,
exclaimed, “Where is our air force?”
Now,
the rising pressure from the militants, and from the Syrian
government’s own supporters, is forcing President Bashar al-Assad’s
forces to confront the possibility of a more direct battle with ISIS, a
fight that had not appeared to be the government’s top priority even as
the group amassed fighters and resources that helped it seize a swath of
territory stretching across the border and into Iraq.
The
escalating confrontation between Mr. Assad’s forces and ISIS is another
indication of just how much the rise of the radical group has erased
borders and upended alliances around the region, and the world.
President Obama, who has long called for the ouster of Mr. Assad, is
facing similar pressure to attack ISIS inside Syria after his top
military adviser said the group cannot otherwise be defeated.
With
other Syrian-led insurgent groups struggling, ISIS and the Syrian Army
increasingly find themselves facing each other across a crucial front
line, around the northern city of Aleppo. If they choose to clash
head-on, that would transform the complicated three-year battle into a
showdown between a powerful jihadist force and Mr. Assad and his allies.
Critics
of Mr. Assad have long speculated that he allowed ISIS to thrive
because it served as a foil and battled Syrian rebel groups, while
validating his government’s claim that it was fighting terrorists.
Though analysts say there is no evidence of a formal alliance, they note
that the Syrian government benefited in some ways from ISIS, which has
focused mainly on trying to establish Islamic rule in the areas it
controls, and has fought the Islamist and nationalist insurgents more
focused on ousting Mr. Assad.
But
now, Damascus residents are increasingly demanding tougher action.
Often giving only first names for fear of retribution, they voiced new
fears that ISIS would reach the capital. More and more of the private
citizens who had long used their Facebook accounts to post messages
supporting the government are now complaining that the military did not
better support the few isolated garrisons facing ISIS in the east; one
noted that the minister of defense was not worried “because his sons are
safe in Damascus.”
In
recent weeks, the air force has carried out new strikes against ISIS in
its northeastern stronghold of Raqqa and in Deir al-Zour, to the
southeast, where ISIS recently overwhelmed insurgent rivals and crushed
local tribal resistance. Soldiers say the army will stand against the
militants as they bear down on Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and the
linchpin of the north.
Both
Mr. Assad and his armed opponents have at times used the flow of
foreign militants into the country for their own purposes. Many Syrian
insurgent groups, including the United States-backed Free Syrian Army,
have relied on well-armed, well-financed foreign extremists and their
enthusiasm for battle. Many later turned on ISIS after the group sought
to rule rebel-held areas and attacked political activists and other
insurgents.
Interactive Graphic
A Rogue State Along Two Rivers
The victories gained by the militant group calling
itself the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria were built on months of
maneuvering along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
“Both
sides wanted to play with it, but they lost control,” said a Damascus
businessman who opposes Mr. Assad and is critical of armed insurgents.
He asked not to be named for fear of retribution. “The magic turns on
the person who plays with it, and the cook of the poison will taste it.”
When
ISIS first took over large new areas of Iraq in June, taking the world
by surprise, many in Damascus expressed what one humanitarian worker,
who also requested anonymity, called “a guilty relief” that ISIS might
simply “go away.”
But
days later, at a Damascus cafe alive with patrons watching the World
Cup after midnight, the government adviser, Mr. Samaan, said he was
surprised that the air force was not already bombing militants returning
with looted American heavy weapons.
Mr.
Samaan, who works with the Ministry of Reconciliation, rejected a
theory popular among insurgents and their supporters that the government
established and controls ISIS and avoids attacking it.
“It’s not true that they don’t attack each other,” he said. “But it is not a first priority.”
He
said officials had been “happy to see ISIS killing” insurgents from the
Free Syrian Army and the Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and believed that
in light of the ISIS threat, “the world would support the regime.”
ISIS’ Goals for Iraq and Syria
Background on ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Video Credit By Christian Roman on
Publish Date June 30, 2014.
Image CreditReuters
But with the threat growing, he said he hoped the government would now focus mainly on fighting ISIS.
Since then, the growing fears over ISIS have marred, for Mr. Assad, a period that was meant to be a victory lap after he won a new term in a disputed election
shortly after solidifying control of the crucial corridor from Damascus
through Homs to the coast. ISIS’s advances reveal that while Mr.
Assad’s original armed opponents are struggling, his government and
war-weary military still fail to control large areas of the country and
face a newly formidable foe.
On
the day Mr. Assad was inaugurated for his new term, July 15, ISIS
attacked an oil field in Homs Province, starting a battle that left
scores of soldiers, oil workers and pro-government militiamen dead. Two
weeks later, ISIS swept into Division 17, the army’s lone remaining
outpost in the city of Raqqa, and routed the soldiers, killing many,
sweeping on to two more bases farther north.
A
government employee and military wife from Mr. Assad’s hometown,
Qardaha, sputtered with outrage at a Damascus cafe over the ISIS
victories.
“Our
military leadership should have sent more weapons and reinforcements to
help the blocked soldiers and officers or evacuated them by
helicopters,” she said earlier this month, giving only her first name,
Sana.
Two
weeks ago, supporters of Mr. Assad staged a protest in Umayyad Square
in central Damascus — the first of its kind seen in the capital —
demanding that the government secure the release of people kidnapped by
another insurgent group, the Army of Islam.
Graphic: The Iraq-ISIS Conflict in Maps, Photos and Video
Some
Assad supporters, including Sana, the military wife, say they hope the
United States will hit ISIS in Syria in addition to its recent air
attacks on the group in Iraq.
Amid
the rubble of the central city of Homs — which Mr. Assad retook in May
in a campaign focused on crushing mainly homegrown rebels while ISIS
flourished — a member of a pro-government Christian militia was recently
asked whether he would welcome American strikes on ISIS in Syria. His
message to the United States was straightforward: “Solve the problem.”
That some government supporters would welcome United States intervention is a startling turnabout a year after President Obama threatened airstrikes
against the Syrian government over chemical attacks that killed
hundreds near Damascus. Then, Mr. Assad rallied supporters against what
they saw as an assault on Syrian sovereignty.
To
Mr. Assad’s partisans, the armed Syrian opposition that emerged after
the suppression of political protests in 2011 now seems practically
quaint and relatively surmountable, whether through military defeat or
political agreement with fighters the government once called terrorists.
The
Damascus businessman said that if the government did not turn its air
force toward protecting civilians from ISIS — and stop what he called
its own terrorist bombings of civilian neighborhoods — more people would
believe “the regime really is ISIS.”
State
news media have reported numerous new airstrikes on ISIS, and United
Nations officials in Damascus say there have been more direct clashes
between the group and Syrian forces. Syrian insurgents and civilians in
Raqqa say only a few of the strikes have scored direct hits on ISIS
there, though its headquarters is well known.
An
ISIS fighter there who identified himself only as Khaled said recently
over Internet messaging, “Most of the airstrikes have targeted civilians
and not ISIS headquarters,” adding, “Thank God.”
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