(Ha'aretz) Amos Harel - On the Syrian part of Mt. Hermon there is no longer a trace of the Syrian army. The last Syrian commandos abandoned their outposts last winter. There are now almost no locations along the Israeli-Syrian border on the Golan Heights where Israeli and Syrian soldiers are facing each other except for a weak Syrian presence at Quneitra. More than a month after a cease-fire was declared in the Syrian civil war, Israel's assessment that it would collapse is starting to be actualized, albeit much more slowly than first anticipated, as fighting has resumed in various parts of the country. The fact that the cease-fire does not include the Nusra Front and Islamic State allows the Assad regime and the Russian air force to attack them. ISIS is having difficulty holding the large territory on which it declared its Islamic caliphate, especially in Syria. Its attackers include the U.S., Russia, the EU states, Turkey, the Assad regime and numerous Arab states and rebel groups, including Kurdish factions. The coalitions attacking ISIS have complete aerial superiority and the terror attacks it committed or inspired in Paris, Brussels, California and Sinai have only intensified the hostility toward it. A senior Israeli security source said, "The defeat of ISIS in Syria is a matter of time."
2016-04-06 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive