Media sources from Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria told Al-Monitor that government forces instructed members in Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa to mobilize ahead of a major military operation in the Badia region of the Syrian desert. The operation will comb the Deir ez-Zor-Homs-Raqqa-Hama countryside at the behest of Russia, according to the sources.

The sources also revealed high-level coordination between Russia and Iran in the Deir ez-Zor area regarding this operation, especially in the western Deir ez-Zor countryside. 

Russian aircraft six days ago bombed several Islamic State (IS) sites near Jabal al-Bishri west of Deir ez-Zor, the sources said, and a few days ago a member of the Syrian Republican Guard was killed and another wounded when their booby-trapped car exploded at the Tabqa airbase to Raqqa’s west.

Zain al-Abidin al-Akeidi, a journalist from the Deir ez-Zor countryside, told Al-Monitor, “The goal of the military operation is to secure certain axes in the Badia, such as the Jabal al-Amour area in Homs countryside, where IS is active. It also aims to secure the Raqqa-Rusafa axis. Over the past weeks, IS has intensified its activities against the regime forces around the vicinity of the Tabqa airport in the countryside of Raqqa. But given the complex geographical nature of these areas, all IS operations recently consisted of booby-traps and ambushes, making it difficult for the regime to dodge them.”