Russia launches air campaign against Islamic State in Syrian desert
Russian forces intensified their airstrikes against IS sites in Syria’s Badia with the aim of supporting the ground forces that failed to eliminate the organization or curb its spread.
ALEPPO, Syria — During the second week of March, Russian warplanes intensified airstrikes targeting the Islamic State (IS) in eastern Syria.
There are several goals behind the Russian airstrikes. Chief among them is securing the roads in the Badia region (the Syrian desert), limiting IS operations and military capabilities and curbing the spread of the organization in the Badia, which extends over Raqqa, Hama, Homs, Deir Ez-Zor and Aleppo provinces.
The Syrian regime forces and their allied militias have failed to achieve their goals during their ground operations against IS in recent months.
In order to intensify air operations against IS in the desert, the Russian forces have beefed up their presence in two air bases belonging to the Syrian regime in the Badia in the eastern countryside of Homs in order to use these bases as a launching pad for the aircraft striking IS positions and sites in the area.
