Since they were able to take control over Maskanah town on June 4th 2017 and put an end to ISIS existence in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, the regime forces seek to execute a large-scale operation aiming at regaining control over the largest area possible of the Syrian territories, which are still under the control of ISIS. The SOHR has been monitoring the situation since the entry of the regime forces backed by Syrian and non-Syrian militiamen and Hezbollah Elite Forces over the period of June 6th through June 14th 2017, and observed that the regime forces were able to seize 1200 square kilometers of the total area of Al-Raqqah city from ISIS, following their successive withdrawals caused by the intensive shelling by the regime forces and their allied militiamen and by the warplanes of the regime and the Russians.

These forces managed to thrust deeply into Al-Raqqah Province and to expand their control from the administrative borders between Aleppo and Al-Raqqah Provinces to south of Athrayya – Al-Salamiyah Road. The SOHR observed that the regime forces and their allied militiamen are about 7 Km away from the administrative border triangle “Homs, Hama and Al-Raqqah” and that only 90 km separate them from the successful execution of the largest encirclement operation of ISIS as they are to besiege all areas extending from Sabkhat Al-Jabboul in the eastern countryside of Aleppo to Al-Sokhna – Palmyra Road, through the eastern countryside of Hama and northern and northwestern desert of Palmyra. Thus, ISIS will only have two options to choose from: withdrawal before the siege or fighting till the end. If successful, the regime forces would be able to regain control of more than 6000 km2, which include more than 70 villages and towns between the countryside of Aleppo, Hama and Homs,

If the regime forces and their Syrian and non-Syrian militiamen were able to make such an advancement, they would get so close to the administrative borders with Deir Ezzor Province, leaving ISIS with a very small area of the northern Desert of Homs in addition to southern and southeastern countryside of Al-Raqqah, most of Deir Ezzor Province and parts of the southern countryside of Al-Hasakah.