Islamic State Report on Operations in Southern Syria: Translation and Overview

The Islamic State has hardly claimed any operations in the southern Syria region (Deraa, Quneitra and Suwayda’ provinces) over the past two years or so, but this lack of claims should not necessarily be taken to reflect a decline in the group’s activities in southern Syria. In fact, as in the Badiya regions of central Syria, I suspected that the group was likely underreporting its activities in southern Syria for reasons of operational security. Given what we currently know about the killing of the last Islamic State caliph Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi in Deraa in October, underreporting for reasons of operational security should hardly be surprising.

Confirmation of this deliberate underreporting comes today in a report in the group’s weekly al-Naba’ newsletter, detailing claimed operations in the ‘Hawran’ region (in this case, encompassing all of Deraa, Quneitra and Suwayda’).