Dozens of hardline Wahhabi ISIS terrorist group fighters were cornered in a pocket of Syria’s Daraa today after losing all other territory there to a Russian-backed regime assault, a monitor said.
To get themselves out, ISIS was using the release of 30 Druze women and children it kidnapped last week as a bargaining chip, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“There have been talks since yesterday between regime forces and ISIS to evacuate around 100 ISIS fighters and their families from the southwest part of Daraa to the Badiya,” said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.
The Badiya refers to the vast desert stretching from central Syria to the eastern border with Iraq, and where ISIS still holds territory.
“In exchange, ISIS would release 30 hostages it took from Sweida last week,” said Abdel Rahman.
“To put pressure on ISIS, Russian warplanes carried out strikes on the area,” he added.
IS abducted the Druze women and children from a remote village in Sweida, a province directly east of Daraa, during a deadly rampage on July 25 that left more than 250 people dead in the minority-populated area.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the killings but has made no mention of the kidnappings on its propaganda channels.
However, a video published by local news outlets appeared to show one of the female hostages demanding Syria’s government halt its assault on the ISIS-held part of Daraa.
After recapturing the vast majority of Daraa and neighbouring Quneitra from mainstream rebels, Syrian troops turned to ISIS areas of control in the two provinces.
In around two weeks, they have whittled down IS territory to the “surrounded” zone along the border with Jordan, both the Britain-based Observatory and Syrian state media say.
Syrian state news agency SANA said yesterday it expected the group would collapse “within days” but made no mention of negotiations.