The Security Situation in the Syrian Badiya

Interview with a Syrian government fighter

With Syria’s conflict frozen along the frontlines between the three main sides in the war (the Syrian government, the insurgents and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces), the primary challenges facing each of these sides are internal, whether in the form of protests (e.g. the sustained protests against Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib and its environs) or security incidents and insurgent activity. For the Syrian government, the biggest security issues lie in the badiya region (the central Syrian desert and steppes), where the Islamic State has proved to be a persistent insurgent problem. Reporting on the issue has been somewhat difficult though, because the Islamic State itself tends to underreport its activities in this area, and because a lot of the pro-opposition reporting that tends to attract more attention among outsider observers is unverifiable, exaggerated or fabricated.

To discuss the situation in more detail, such as the apparent general escalation in recent Islamic State activity in the badiya, the nature of that activity and whether any towns are at risk of falling to the Islamic State, I conducted an interview with Abu Ja‘afar (‘The Scorpion’). Previously one of the founders of the National Defence Forces in Homs and commander of the auxiliary formation Liwa Khaybar, Abu Ja‘afar now works with Division 25 (which evolved out of the Russian-backed Tiger Forces) in trying to keep the Dayr al-Zur-Palmyra-Homs route secure and is hoping to recruit new fighters as part of the mission against the Islamic State in the badiya. Other forces involved in trying to secure the badiya include Liwa al-Quds (also mainly Russian-backed) and Iranian-backed forces.