| 2022 Jabal al-Bishrī clashes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Syrian Desert campaign (December 2017–present) during the Syrian civil war | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
|
|
 Islamic State | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| Syrian Arab Army | Military of the Islamic State | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
 26 killed[2] |
7+ killed[2] | ||||||
| 2 civilian bus drivers killed[3] | |||||||
The 2022 Jabal al-Bishrī clashes were a set of clashes that took place in the Jabal al-Bishrī highland area on the border of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Raqqa Governorate and Homs Governorates between forces of the Syrian Government and the Islamic State.
The attacks came after the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on a large grouping of Islamic State fighters in the Palmyra desert on 9 June.[4]
On 20 June, 11 Syrian government soldiers and two bus drivers were killed in an ambush by ISIS militants, targeting Syrian Army buses transporting soldiers on the highway in the Al-Jira area.[5][1] The Islamic State later claimed responsibility for this attack.[6]
On 21 June, three Syrian government soldiers were killed and three others were injured after IS fighters attacked a temporary military outpost in the Jabal Al-Bishri desert on the administrative boundary between Raqqa and Deir az-Zour provinces in northeastern Syria under the cover of a sandstorm.[7][8]
On 22 June, late in the day, clashes began between government and IS forces in the Jabal Al-Bishri desert, following aerial bombardment in the area by Russian warplanes, targeting IS positions. These clashes continued into the next day, leaving at least 9 Syrian soldiers and 7 IS fighters dead.[9][2]
SOHR reported that on 24 June, in response to the clashes, Syrian government forces launched large-scale combing operations in the area to find and eliminate IS cells in the region.[10]
