By The Daily Journalist.
After ISIS took the ancient City of Palmyra, March 19, it controls half the provinces in Syria.
The terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS, its acronym in English) is present in over 50% of Syrian territory, after taking most of the country’s central desert where the monumental city of Palmyra is located, it was taken yesterday as jihadists and activists reported this Thursday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the radicals are spread over 95,000 square kilometers of Syria and are strong in nine provinces: Homs, Al Raqa, Deir al-Zur, Al Hasaka, Hama, Aleppo, Damascus, Rif Damascus and Sueida .
Thus, the extremists expand from east to west by an area stretching from the south of Mount Abdelaziz and the village of Al Hul, in Al Hasaka (northeast) to the periphery of Marea in Aleppo (north), passing for most of Deir al Zur and Al Raqa (northeast) and the Syrian central desert.
To the south, the jihadists controlled areas east of Damascus, as well as parts of the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk and Al Hajar al Aswad district, south of the capital, and points north of Sueida (south).
Furthermore, in the southern province of Deraa, there are groups that are suspected ISIS loyalists. Radicals are holding most of the country’s gas fields, minus the site of Al Shaer, in the east of Homs and in the hands of the regime, and the Ramilan in the hands of the People’s Protection Units -milicias Kurdish sirias- in Al Hasaka.
Caliphate in Syria and Iraq
ISIS proclaimed in the end of June 2014 a caliphate in Syria and Iraq. The extremists have managed to expand in the Syrian territory despite the bombing of the international coalition, beginning on September 23.
Analysts polled by different agencies stressed yesterday that these air strikes are “ineffective” and that what is needed to stop the ISIS are “boots on the ground”.
