The Syrian army, fighting alongside Lebanon's Hezbollah, has seized the last urban hub held by the "Islamic State" in Syria. With IS effectively wiped out, the war in Syria may enter a new phase.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Hussein
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The Syrian army and allied Shiite militia forces encircled the town of Albu Kamal on Wednesday before ousting the "Islamic State" (IS) jihadi group from its last urban stronghold in the country.
Syrian state television declared that "Albu Kamal is liberated," while a Syrian military commander told the Reuters news agency that "The last stronghold of Daesh [the Arabic term for IS], Albu Kamal, is free of the Daesh organization."
Albu Kamal is located on the Syrian border with Iraq, on the bank of the Euphrates in the oil-rich province of Deir el-Zour. Military sources reported Wednesday that Lebanese Hezbollah soldiers, fighting alongside the Syrian army, entered the town through Iraq, while the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces crossed through Syria to help seize the town.
Who's fighting in the Syria conflict?
Syria's civil war erupted out of the Arab Spring protests that swept much of the Middle East and North Africa in 2011. The conflict has since drawn in multiple warring factions from around the world.
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War with no end
Syria has been engulfed in a devastating civil war since 2011 after Syrian President Bashar Assad lost control over large parts of the country to multiple revolutionary groups. The conflict has since drawn in foreign powers and brought misery and death to Syrians.
Image: picture alliance/abaca/A. Al-Bushy
The dictator
Syria's army, officially known as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), is loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is fighting to restore the president's rule over the entire country. The SAA has been fighting alongside a number of pro-Assad militias such as the National Defense Force and has cooperated with military advisors from Russia and Iran, which back Assad.
Turkey, which is also part of the US-led coalition against IS, has actively supported rebels opposed to Assad. It has a tense relationship with its American allies over US cooperation with Kurdish fighters, who Ankara says are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighting in Turkey. Turkey has launched multiple military offensives targeting Kurdish militias.
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The eastern guardian
The Kremlin has proven to be a powerful friend to Assad. Russian air power and ground troops officially joined the fight in September 2015 after years of supplying the Syrian army. Moscow has come under fire from the international community for the high number of civilian casualties during its airstrikes. However, Russia's intervention turned the tide in war in favor of Assad.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Tass/M. Metzel
The western allies
A US-led coalition of more than 50 countries, including Germany, began targeting IS and other terrorist targets with airstrikes in late 2014. The anti-IS coalition has dealt major setbacks to the militant group. The US has more than a thousand special forces in the country backing the Syrian Democratic Forces.
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The rebels
The Free Syrian Army grew out of protests against the Assad regime that eventually turned violent. Along with other non-jihadist rebel groups, it seeks the ouster of President Assad and democratic elections. After suffering a number of defeats, many of its members defected to hardline militant groups. It garnered some support from the US and Turkey, but its strength has been greatly diminished.
Image: Reuters
The resistance
Fighting between Syrian Kurds and Islamists has become its own conflict. The US-led coalition against the "Islamic State" has backed the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias. The Kurdish YPG militia is the main component of the SDF. The Kurds have had a tacit understanding with Assad.
Image: Getty Images/A. Sik
The new jihadists
"Islamic State" (IS) took advantage of regional chaos to capture vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Seeking to establish its own "caliphate," IS has become infamous for its fundamentalist brand of Islam and its mass atrocities. IS is on the brink of defeat after the US and Russia led separate military campaigns against the militant group.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo
The old jihadists
IS is not the only terrorist group that has ravaged Syria. A number of jihadist militant groups are fighting in the conflict, warring against various rebel factions and the Assad regime. One of the main jihadist factions is Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which controls most of Idlib province and has ties with al-Qaeda.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Nusra Front on Twitter
The Persian shadow
Iran has supported Syria, its only Arab ally, for decades. Eager to maintain its ally, Tehran has provided Damascus with strategic assistance, military training and ground troops when the conflict emerged in 2011. The Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah also supports the Assad regime, fighting alongside Iranian forces and paramilitary groups in the country.
Image: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
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Backed by Russian aerial support and missile strikes, Syrian regime forces had advanced towards Albu Kamal over the past two weeks.
Fighting in and around the area has led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people. According to Linda Tom from the United Nations' humanitarian coordination office in Damascus, some 120,000 people have been displaced from Albu Kamal alone.
While IS continues to controls areas of desert and a handful of small pockets along the Euphrates, the jihadi group has largely been ousted from its former strongholds by Russia and Iran-backed Syrian forces in central and eastern parts of the country, and by the US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias in northern and eastern Syria.
However, the group continues to out guerilla operations in Syria and Iraq at an alarming frequency, while lone militants continue to target civilians in western states.
Next phase of the Syria conflict
The ousting of IS in Syria is likely to lead to a far more geopolitically sensitive phase of the Syrian war, with the Syrian government vowing to recapture all the territory held by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). These areas include IS' self-proclaimed former capital Raqqa, as well as a number of oil and gas fields located near the Euphrates.
Under the control of Kurdish-led groups, many of the territories have since established their own autonomy, introduced their own internal policies and even announced local elections.
On Tuesday, Bouthaina Shaaban, a senior advisor to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, described US forces as illegal invaders for their role in propping up the Kurdish militias fighting in the country.
Washington, meanwhile, has yet to outline its plans for the region once IS has been defeated. Whether the United States intends to continue backing the SDF also remains unknown.
Syrian troops regain control of ISIS-occupied oilfields
